SCARS
by LalaMoped
Summary: To most people, being kidnapped by the Zombie Brothers would be a bad thing. She wasn't most people, and there was no way her life could get worse, anyway. - HidanOCKakuzu - Beware of swearing.
1. Prologue

**SCARS  
>Prologue<br>**_"__I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut  
>My weakness is that I care too much<br>And our scars remind us that the past is real  
>I tear my heart open just to feel."<em>

The forest was slowly getting denser, and the brunette suspected that she was getting closer to her destination. The rocky, barren place where it was said that Kakuzu had died had offered her no clues as to the whereabouts of his body. Hidan would be her last hope.

_I thought they couldn't die,_ she lamented, continuing on through the woods, not completely sure of where she was going. When the news about the deaths of two Akatsuki members had first been whispered, she refused to believe it. It was impossible, wasn't it? Maybe Kakuzu, but Hidan was immortal. He had to still be alive.

She sighed, settling against the trunk of a big tree and sliding to the ground. The leaves crunched below her sandals as she stretched her legs out in front of herself, moaning quietly at her sore muscles. Work at the tea shop was putting her out of shape, she decided, retrieving her bag of cured meat. It was tough to chew, and she quickly decided that she wasn't nearly hungry enough to work that hard to eat. As she was putting her lunch away, however, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

Through the foliage, a large deer peered at her, his massive antlers rustling low branches on the trees he passed below. She stared back at it until, slowly, more deer began to appear around her. A little unnerved, she climbed to her feet and threw her pack back over her shoulder, opposite her katana.

"What exactly do you guys eat?" she asked nervously. "Not people, I hope." When the deer made no move to answer her, she started walking again. "Well, I have stuff to take care of, so I'll just be going. You wouldn't happen to have seen the guys I'm looking for? Tall one with a creepy face; one yay high with white hair and no shirt? Probably both corpses…?"

The deer continued to stare curiously at her, and she pursed her lips in irritation and hopelessness.

"Great. I thought so," she muttered, stomping on childishly. "Thanks, anyway." As she tromped, a fallen log caught her ankle and she tripped, spilling her belongings out in front of her. "Ugh!" she cried. "This is all your fault, Kakuzu-san! Why did you guys leave me behind?"

Furiously, she wiped the tears from her eyes and gathered her things back up, tossing them carelessly into her sack. When her eyes fell on the last item, she paused. Gathering it up and holding it to her chest, she resisted letting the tears flow freely once more.

In her mind, Hidan's voice cursed at her, "_Get up, Crybaby! What kind of pussy warrior are you?_"

"I'm not strong enough," she sniffled. "I'm not strong enough to be alone." She hardly noticed the muzzle that pressed against her cheek in what could be taken as comfort. Looking down at the glossy surface, she laughed humorlessly. "Hidan-san… What did you expect me to do with a jewelry box?"

"_Girls like shiny shit like this, right?"_

"_I guess," she answered, examining it. Opening the box, she found it chimed a little tune, and she grinned. "Thanks."_

_He laughed, "Now you can ask Kakuzu to buy you something pretty to put in it."_

"_No way," she scowled. "_I'm_ not the immortal, here."_

Putting it away, she gave the buck a pat. "I must look pathetic," she sighed. "To tell the truth, I _feel_ pretty pathetic." She decided that the deer looked interested in what she had to say, and she went on, "Want to know how I met them? Of course you do. See, it was almost a year ago, I think…"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: If you haven't already guessed, this fic is going to be pretty self-indulgent. I spend so much time worry whether or not my characters are Mary-Sues, so I'm really not going to stress it in this one. Of course, I'm still going to try to make the girl as fleshed-out of a character as possible. I feel that any OC who ends up hanging out with the Akatsuki has to be sort of a Mary-Sue anyway, because they _are_ ruthless criminals, after all. That said, I'm writing this primarily for me, and if others can enjoy it, all the better.**

**Also, I want to warn everyone here that, though the language in this prologue is fairly mild, it will get worse from here on in. I'd assume that you wouldn't be a fan of Hidan if you were offended by this, but I'll still warn you here. I'm going to keep it set at the T rating, because I don't think that the "F-word" warrants an M rating. And there probably won't be much in the way of extreme gore or sexually explicit scenes, anyway. If that changes, the rating will, too.  
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**The lyrics are from Scars by Papa Roach.  
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	2. Reverie

**Chapter One**  
><em>"<em>_Falling from this edge  
>I am lost to all I know<br>Time is only fantasy and  
>Lies the only<br>Reverie."_

A dirty, young girl wandered through the woods. She had found a branch, and after seeing a fighting tournament taking place in the last village she had been in, she had become enthralled by the swordsmanship of one Idashi, and she practiced in her own useless way as she walked. The twigs hurt her bare feet, but she had discovered over the years that she was more likely to be attacked by bandits on the road. Instead, she forged her own path through the harsh underbrush, swinging her stick to fend off imaginary assailants.

She had been walking for two days before she came to the next town. She remembered the good old days, when she had been little enough that people had felt pity for the tiny beggar. Now, although she wasn't sure exactly how old she was, she was too old for law enforcement to simply ignore her. Now, branded with names like thief and pickpocket, she was forced to keep moving to avoid punishment for her crimes. She didn't know what the name of this village was. It was just the next in a long line of nameless villages, and, so long as she didn't die here, it would not be the last.

As she approached, she noticed that it was strangely quiet. The normal buzz of townsfolk could not be heard, and she squatted in the bushes to get a better look before she ended up in trouble. There wasn't much to be seen from where she was, but it had become obvious that there was definitely something wrong. When she finally did hear voices, they did little to calm her nerves.

"Ne, Kakuzu! When are we going to find this fucking bounty of yours? I need a sacrifice for Jashin-sama," whined one as they walked by where she hid.

"Shut up. We're getting close to Idashi, and then you can sacrifice him. I only need his head," answered the one called Kakuzu. In the blink of an eye, he had come to stand in front of the girl's hiding spot, and had a hand clamped around her throat a second later.

She gasped and squirmed, but the effort was wasted against the giant man. Her hands found his wrist, but that was also useless.

"Found an eavesdropper?" Hidan asked, moseying toward them at his leisure.

"I wasn't…! I didn't mean…!" each of these half-formed statements were punctuated by a gasp, and the girl grew more frantic as the edges of her vision darkened. "Idashi!" she finally managed, as the name clicked into place for her. "I know where Idashi is!"

Kakuzu dropped her to the ground and stared menacingly at her. "Where?"

"In a village a little ways from here. I don't know what it's called-"

"Liar," Hidan scoffed.

"No, it's true! He was in a fighting tournament, held by the headman. He's staying in the headman's mansion." She crawled to her knees, inching back little by little. If she could distract them, she might be able to run away.

"Don't even try," Kakuzu's voice boomed. "If you run away, I'll kill you. You'll lead us to Idashi, and if he is not where you say he is, I'll be killing you in his place."

She stared in wide-eyed horror, but nodded her understanding and stood slowly. "Um, this way," she managed, as she turned and went back the way she had come. She didn't even want to think about what they'd do to her if Idashi wasn't still there when they arrived.

The whole way there, she could feel their eyes on her back. She didn't dare look back at them, but she just _knew_ that they were watching her intently, ready to kill her at their slightest whim.

_No, no,_ she reminded herself. _They need me. I'm safe for at least another day._ Even that prospect wasn't particularly cheery, though.

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She moved faster than she had on the way out. That, added to the lack of rest that was allowed to her, got the trio to the village in less than a day. She walked solemnly through the town square as early morning bystanders watched them discreetly from behind wherever they managed to find concealment. The headman's home was easy to find again. Even someone who had never seen it before would know instantly who it belonged to.

Kakuzu eyed the front gate before obliterating it with one blow. As guards rushed out to stop the intruders, Kakuzu issued one order to his silver-haired partner. "Watch the girl."

Hidan spat on the ground in response as Kakuzu met the soldiers head on. Eventually, though, Hidan joined in on the fight, and the girl scurried away while they were distracted. She ignored the agonized screams of the people that were dying at the cloaked men's hands.

She rounded the mansion, sprinting as fast as she could, until she came to an area of the wall near the back, where an animal of some sort had dug a hole into the building. She crawled through, her half-starved frame just barely fitting. Inside, she realized she was in a dark storage room. There were bags of rice stacked against the walls, which, she decided, would make for excellent hiding.

She crawled silently over the dusty wood floor, making her way to the back corner. To her surprise, however, there was already someone crouched there. She surveyed his filthy socks, up to his tattered yukata, past his intricate sword, and to his face. She gasped.

"Idashi?" She stared at the man, the closest thing to a hero she might have ever had. His eyes were bloodshot and framed by dark circles, and it was obvious that he had not been asleep in the past day. "Idashi-sama, you have to help! There are men out there, killing people. They're looking for you!"

He slapped a clammy hand over her mouth. "Shut up, you little bitch!" he hissed, alcohol heavy on his breath. "Get out of here! You'll lead them right to me!"

She fell back and blinked up at him. "But…"

He drew his sword and held the point to her chest. "I said get out," he growled.

She looked at the blade, then at the samurai. Something inside her broke, possibly from lack of sleep, possibly from knowing that she was going to die very soon, regardless of how the next few minutes played out. Whatever the reason, she glared at him. "No!" she shouted, slapping the sword away from her person and hurrying to her feet. "You are strong, and you're letting people die for your sake! What about protecting the weak? What about honor?"

He pounced at her, shrieking. "Shut up, you little whore!" He lunged at her with his blade, but she slipped through the crude door into the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty, but forgotten food and utensils suggested that breakfast had been abandoned when the commotion outside had started up. She had little time to contemplate this as Idashi sliced through the door and came bounding in after her. She quickly moved to put the preparation table between herself and where he stood. Now, a few meters apart, she attempted to think the situation through.

She was trapped in a kitchen with an expert swordsman, who wanted to kill her. Yeah, that was pretty much it. She glanced down and noticed a fillet knife beside a half-cut portion of fish. Snatching it up just as he hopped onto the table and ran at her, she dove under the table, just barely managing not to be impaled when he stabbed down through the wood at her.

As she came out the other side, he was already coming around at her, ready to cut her in half. She threw her knife at him as she backed away, the cutlery somersaulting at him and hitting his shoulder with its handle. Now she really didn't stand a chance. She backed away until her elbow hit something unbearably hot, and she had to jerk away out of habit.

The pot of water bubbled away behind her. She glanced back at the man who was trying to kill her, and in a split second, she made her decision. The metal handle burned her hand as she ducked down below the stove and hurled the boiling water at Idashi. It splattered over his face and shoulders, some of it even splashing down and showering her feet and shins with coin-sized burns.

He howled, and his sword fell to the floor, skidding across the wet surface until it hit the cabinet beside the girl. She grabbed it and held it toward him, knowing that she had barely a snowball's chance against him. He breathed raggedly as he stalked toward her with absolute killing intent. With little hope for success, she clenched her eyes shut and swung the blade blindly in Idashi's direction.

It stuck him in the side, and when she saw that he was still coming at her, she swung again in the other direction, harder this time. It sliced him across the chest, and he fell on her, tearing at her blindly in an attempt to cause her a much pain as he possibly could. She felt her left wrist crack when he clenched it in one hand, struggling to reclaim his sword from her right. Her head bounced back against the stove painfully, but she did not let him have it.

She kicked her legs at him until her knee finally found his gut and she dug it in as hard as she could, slicing at him again when his grip loosened. He stiffened, and then fell limp on top of her, his dead eyes staring wide at her face, his slit throat bleeding over her tatty shirt. She pushed his body off of her fervently, sliding away from it until the kitchen wall would let her go no further.

As she watched him bleed, her head spun and her hands trembled. This was what it was like to kill someone? She didn't know how anyone did it on a daily basis. Her stomach churned, and she vomited stomach acid until her empty belly had nothing left to offer. Her dry-heaves only subsided when she finally passed out from pain and pure exhaustion.

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"Oi! Stupid bitch, I know you're alive," a voice shouted at her, accompanied by a foot rolling her over onto her back. "Wake up!"

Her eyes just barely cracked open, and she gazed upon the face of the silver-haired man in the black and red cloak. She could only manage to frown at him as she attempted to fall back to sleep. She was in more pain than she ever remembered being in, and she could smell something awful. She groaned when she realized it was her. Sure, she usually smelled pretty badly, but this was the added stench of a blood-soaked shirt and puke in her matted hair.

Somewhere on the other side of the room, Kakuzu was grumbling about burns and not being able to recognize the face. "Get her up," Kakuzu commanded. "If I can't collect my money off of this bastard, you can sacrifice the girl to your stupid god."

"Fucking atheist! Jashin-sama will-"

"Death and hell are the least of my worries right now," Kakuzu interrupted. "Either get her up or carry her."

Hidan ground his teeth, but turned back to the girl, grabbing her by and arm and hauling her to her feet. She swayed, and if not for him grabbing her by the back of her shirt, she'd have fallen over. Aggrieved, her grabbed her and threw her unceremoniously over his shoulder with no regard for her injuries. She made a half-attempt at protesting, but passed out before she could manage even a syllable.

* * *

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**A/N: Blah. Practicing fight scenes.**

**Song is Reverie by Megan McCauley.**


	3. Miss Nothing

**Chapter Two**_  
>"<em>_And as I watch you disappear into the ground  
>My one mistake was that I never let you down<br>So I'll waste my time and I'll burn my mind  
>On miss nothing, on miss everything."<em>

It was raining when she awoke next. She was still being hauled over the white-haired man's shoulder; her view was of his triple-bladed scythe, and the muddy road below that. She shifted, and the man took this as his cue to throw her to the ground.

"About damn time," she complained, rotating his shoulder. "Heavy bitch."

She glanced at Kakuzu, who walked ahead of them with little concern for what was going on behind him. Looking back at Hidan, she saw he was scowling at her. She stood slowly, rubbing her sore bottom and cradling her injured wrist against her chest. "Sorry," she mumbled, as she followed after Kakuzu.

Hidan snorted and started walking behind her. They were quiet for a while until he started up again. "Kakuzu! How much farther?"

Kakuzu didn't spare Hidan a glance. "Three miles," he answered lowly.

It was then that the girl noticed the bloody sack made of Idashi's yukata for the first time. It only took her a second to realize what was wrapped within the cloth, and she felt sick all over again. And then something else came to mind, and she hesitated a moment before hurrying to walk beside Kakuzu.

"You got him, right? Idashi, I mean," she said timidly. "That means I can go, right?"

He glared at her. "No. Thanks to you, his face is burned beyond recognition," he said. "I have his head and his sword, however, but even that may only be worth half at most."

She eyed the katana for a second, the weapon that she had murdered with, and then she looked to the ground. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"That won't make him worth more," he snapped at her, making her jump back. "If I can't collect on him, you will pay with your life."

She might have rolled her eyes and said, '_That again? Think of a new threat,_' if she hadn't been so terrified of him. As it was, she merely fell back and walked nearer to Hidan, even though that wasn't really much better. She avoided eye contact with him the rest of the way there.

* * *

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It continued to drizzle as Hidan and the girl waited outside while Kakuzu went inside with the hope of collecting his bounty. They hovered under the overhang of the roof to keep from getting wet for several minutes in relative peace. Then, as it seemed to be Hidan's duty to destroy any form of peace, he was shouting at her again.

"Stinky bitch, stand in the rain until the smell washes off of you."

She gave him the stink eye discreetly as she moved to do as he told her. She wandered around the area in front of the building, making sure to stay where Hidan could see her so he wouldn't yell at her. The rain blocked out most of the sounds around her, making even her own thoughts calm. She wiggled her toes in a puddle, smiling at the feel. And then she shivered and sneezed.

Hidan sighed, "Get back over here, stupid. You're going to make yourself sick, and then I'll have to deal with_ that_."

She sat against the wall and pulled her knees to her chest. "So… Are you and Kakuzu-san bounty hunters?" she asked eventually, tired of the silence.

"No."

"Oh. But you _are_ ninja, right?"

He looked at her, "Yeah."

"Cool," she smiled. "So you can walk on water and jump really high?"

He rolled his eyes, "That's the most basic stuff." He turned his attention to the door just seconds before it opened and Kakuzu joined them outside. Standing, Hidan approached his partner. "So?"

"No proof that it was him. The best I can do is pawn this piece of scrap metal for whatever I can get for it." Kakuzu walked past Hidan and shot his arm out, catching the girl by her neck and dragging her toward him with his black threads. "I told you what would happen," he growled once she was close enough to hear.

"Should have killed her from the beginning," Hidan muttered, walking away.

She looked frantically between the two men, hoping against all hope that one of them might have some spark of goodness in his heart. Neither was looking very promising. "Wait," she choked. "I know where all sorts of people are! If I can lead you to just one person will you let me go?"

Kakuzu dropped her and fished a book out of his robe. Throwing it at her roughly, he said, "Any one that isn't already crossed out. The more he's worth, the better chance you have of getting away with your life."

She bit her lip as she flipped though the pictures. To her dismay, all of the ones she recognized had already been crossed out. She turned page after page, searching desperately for any man that she had ever seen before. Just as the cold fist of despair had gripped her stomach, she spotted a face.

Kakuzu was growing impatient, and was just about to kill the girl then and there, when she thrust the book up toward him, pointing to the picture of a burly gorilla of a man. He raised an eyebrow at her. She really thought she could trick him into believing that she could locate one of the few people that hadn't been seen in years?

"This one!" she assured him. "What's his name?"

Kakuzu read the name below the picture, "Okaji."

"Yes! Okaji! I heard him talking to someone once. He said that he was going into hiding in… Oh, what was it?"

Hidan's eye twitched. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Marsh Country, that was it! He said to tell his brother to look for him at… Kenba! Something about a big statue…"

Kakuzu pulled out his map and zoned in on the area that marked Marsh Country. Sure enough, in the west, was a city called Kenba. He looked back down at the girl, and a second later was dragging her up by the hair. "You had better be right," he hissed, pulling a kunai out from his cloak.

She fell back onto the ground as Kakuzu put away his kunai and threw the tangle of hair from her head off to the side. He walked by Hidan, who stood dumbfounded, and onto the path that led into town.

"If you're going to be traveling with us, you're going to be clean."

The girl blinked at Kakuzu's back, then stood and followed him, running her fingers absently through her short pixie-cut hair. Hidan brought up the rear, muttering about greedy bastards and annoying bitches.

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"Hold still!"

The girl flailed. "It's in my eyes! It's in my eyes!"

"Well, if you would hold still, the soap wouldn't get in your fucking eyes!" Hidan forced her head under the shower's spray, scrubbing her until her skin was red.

After three washings, her hair and skin were both proven to be a shade lighter than they had appeared only a few hours ago. She pulled the gray hotel robe closer around her shoulders as Hidan carted her out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, where Kakuzu sat. On one futon, a turquoise _jinbei_ set was folded neatly with a new pair of wooden _zōri_ on the floor beside it.

Kakuzu didn't look up from counting his money, "Hurry up and dress. It's almost dinner time."

She nodded and picked up the jacket and put it on first, followed quickly by the shorts and the sandals. She had never worn shoes before. It felt strange. She followed Hidan and Kakuzu out into the street, and then to a little restaurant down the road.

Kakuzu ordered rice and tea for all of them, ignoring Hidan's protests. Ignoring Hidan seemed to be a theme, as the girl ate the food that was put in front of her with no complaints, all the while tuning out Hidan's ranting. She shoveled every last grain into her mouth and downed her cup of tea in only a few gulps. Once done, she began to stare at Hidan's unfinished food until he got uncomfortable and surrendered it to her.

"Shit, when was the last time you ate?" he asked, watching her swallow mouthfuls larger than a girl her size should have been able to.

"Three days? Four?" she answered, her cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk's. She shrugged, "I don't remember."

Hidan scoffed, "Can't take care of yourself at all." He sipped his tea, then set it down with a _clink_. "Name?" he pointed at her.

She shrugged again, "Dunno."

A grin stretched along Hidan's face, "How about Urusai?"

"That's just mean."

Kakuzu picked at his rice disinterestedly, "Kane."

"We are not naming her after money!" Hidan all but bellowed. "We'll call you Shinkou."

"Like hell. I'm sick of your stupid religion," Kakuzu argued.

"Sonofa-"

"Hey! Don't I get any say?" she asked, throwing her hands up. "Maybe you can find something between the two. Like… Shi… Kan… Uh."

"Kinshin," Hidan supplied, "with the kanji for money and faith."

Kakuzu went back to picking at his food, but his lack of objection was taken as consent by his two companions, and the girl, now dubbed Kinshin, smiled at him. He glared at her, and she instantly dropped her attention back to her empty bowl.

Hidan complained about how hot it was while Kakuzu finished his meal. Afterward, they returned to the inn.

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**A/N: Vocabulary in this chapter-  
>Jinbei: A set of clothing consisting of a top and shorts. Usually worn by males.<br>****Zōri: Flip-flops, essentially.  
>Urusai: Annoying; pesky. Can also mean "Shut up."<br>Kane: Money  
>Shinkou: Faith<strong>

**Fun fact, the kanji for money is the same as the kanji for gold. So Kinshin's name also fits with the shougi theme that both Hidan's (hisha, rook) and Kakuzu's (kakugyou, bishop) names have. Her shougi counterpart would be kinshou, the gold general.**

**Song is Miss Nothing by The Pretty Reckless.  
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	4. Time is Running Out

**Chapter Three**  
><em>"Our time is running out<br>Our time is running out  
>You can't push it underground<br>You can't stop it screaming out."_

Kakuzu was watching her like a hawk. He had been since they left the inn that morning, and it was more than a little unnerving. Kinshin tugged absently at her hair, and fell back to walk beside Hidan, just to get a break from being within Kakuzu's eye line.

Hidan seemed just as ready to kill her as he would be an annoying mosquito, though. This was odd, considering he seemed to be in a better mood than usual. Despite his scowl at her, the sunlight caught his pale hair and glinted from his violet eyes, making him look… very nice.

She shook her head violently. What an odd thought to have. It must have been because he seemed so much better in comparison to Kakuzu.

The walking continued for hours, but any complaints that the girl might have made died after the very first one was met with an extra deadly glare from Kakuzu, and the sort of smile that didn't bode well for her from Hidan. She winced quietly as her feet, unused to shoes, blistered and screamed that she sit down for a little while.

At last, Hidan badgered Kakuzu into setting up camp for the night, and they found a nice little spot beside a creek. The area was well-hidden by dense forest, but the grass was long and soft. Closer to the water's edge, the ground was sandier and warmer from the sun's rays.

Kakuzu sat on a rock, looking over his map, while Hidan flopped down onto the grass in the shade. Kinshin sat on the rocky ground and removed her shoes, dipping her bare feet into the cool water and sighing in ecstasy at the feel. The bottoms of her feet were plenty calloused from years of being barefoot, but the sensitive area where the strap of the shoe rubbed between her big and second toes was a burning red.

"Collect some firewood," called Hidan across the clearing to Kinshin. The girl frowned.

"Why me?" she whined, regretting it the second Kakuzu reiterated Hidan's command. Biting her lip, she shook her feet of excess water and slipped her shoes back on, moving into the foliage reluctantly.

She collected dry twigs, all the while muttering to herself, until she glanced over her shoulder to check on her companions, the lazy bums. They couldn't be seen through the thick branches, and she paused. She could run. She couldn't get far if they knew she was running away, but if they thought she was collecting wood, it would take a while before they thought something was amiss. Or so she reasoned.

Gathering her courage, she set her twigs down gently and prepared to sprint.

"What are you doing?"

"Ah!" She turned guiltily to look at Hidan, who raised an eyebrow at her. "Nothing!" she shouted.

He squinted, "Really?"

"Y-yes."

"Then why don't you have any wood?"

She quickly picked her bundle back up. "I have wood. See? Right here."

He waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah, I see it," Hidan snapped. "Get back to the campsite, then. It's getting dark, and a girl like you would be eaten by wolves in a second."

She hurried to walk in step with him. "You came to check on me because you were afraid wolves would get me?" she asked, moved that anyone cared about her.

"No, I came to see what was taking so long because I'm hungry."

"Oh." She thought for a second, "I'm hungry, too."

He didn't seem to care. "I hope you're good at catching fish, then."

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"What's the trick?" she asked, frustrated.

On the grass, Hidan and Kakuzu both had more fish than they could possibly eat, having caught several with little effort. Kinshin had been at it for more than an hour and hadn't gotten any. They were too fast, and too slippery to hold onto when she did manage to grab a slow one.

Hidan laughed at her expense. Kakuzu only pulled a kunai out and launched it at her, imbedding it into the ground beside her.

"Stab one," he advised.

"And don't get your own foot," Hidan added, still highly amused.

She was tempted to throw the pointy object at Hidan's head, but settled on doing as Kakuzu had instructed her. She missed every time.

"You're holding it wrong, stupid," Hidan commented from his spot. "How can you expect to stab _anything_ with a grip like that?" He stood and came up behind her, still barefoot and without his cloak from his own fishing. He reset the kunai in her hand so that she was holding it properly. "Don't grip it so hard," he said, critiquing from over her shoulder. When he was satisfied with how she was holding the kunai, he set to work correcting her stance. "Spread your legs more. You'll fall over too easily like that."

She did it. "Like this?"

"Now stop going after every fish you see. Be selective. Bigger ones are better, and the ones that dart around a lot are going to be too hard to predict." He watched the water for a moment, then pointed out a fish that was indeed bigger and slower than the rest. "There. That one. Now wait until it's by that rock… And now!"

His hand guided hers and she brought the point down just behind the fish's head, impaling it. When she pulled the kunai from the water, the fish came with it.

"I did it!" she cheered, waving it around for both of them to see.

Hidan snorted and went back to where he had left his fish on sticks protruding from the ground. "Come cook it, already. You can have some of mine, too. You look like a skeleton."

She hummed happily as she ate Hidan's extras and waited for her own fish to cook. It turned golden-brown in the fire. She sat with her mouth full, staring at the second thing (aside from the occasional bug) that she had ever killed in her life. Then she remembered the kunai that sat by her side, and picked it up to look it over. She recalled the way Hidan had told her to hold it, and changed her grip.

"How'd you throw it like that?" she asked Kakuzu, who gave her a look.

"Captives don't get to use weapons," he told her.

She pouted. "No fair. I never asked to be a captive."

"No," Hidan agreed. "But you _did_ ask us not to kill you."

She _humphed_, and went back to her fish. The injustice of it all was just too much. Even after the fish and the daylight were both gone, she stared into the fire, fingering the dangerous blade. It was hopeless. No matter what she did, the Akatsuki members were too strong and fast for her to get away from. And she was slowly losing the will to try getting away.

"Ouch," she hissed, and the tiny cut on her fingertip dripped tiny dots of blood onto the grass below her.

Hidan raised an eyebrow, grabbing her hand and looking at the cut. "You should be careful," he told her, a smirk playing across his lips. "One drop of your blood is all I need to cause you a slow and agonizing death."

"But you won't," Kinshin reasoned. "Because Kakuzu-san wants me alive until we get to Kenba; until he has Okaji."

Hidan tilted his head, looking at her from below a furrowed brow. "What do you think happens after that?" he asked.

"I'd like to think he'll keep his word and let me go," she admitted. "Realistically, I'm hoping it will at least be quick, whatever he decides to do."

Kakuzu feigned sleep a few feet away. He resisted the urge to huff at her statement. Then again, it wasn't like he was above making promises with his mouth while strangling someone with his hands. Still, that she had so bluntly called him a liar and a cheat irritated him.

Hidan let go of her hand, smirking again. "At least you aren't completely naïve," he said, taking her kunai and standing. "I'm going to sleep, and you should, too."

"Yeah," she murmured thoughtfully. She followed him over to where Kakuzu slept and laid down on the grass. Staring up at the stars, she shivered in the chilly nighttime air, thinking over everything that had happened in the last week. She had gone from homeless, hungry and in rags, to… Well, homeless, less hungry and wearing real clothes. It wasn't a huge step up, but it was more than she expected out of her life. She eventually fell asleep, lulled by crickets and the sound of wind-rustled leaves.

* * *

><p><p>

Kenba was the town equivalent of a seedy bar. Every person looked about ready to do something unspeakable; every building looked dirty and about ready to fall down, and the sun seemed unable to penetrate the smoky brown clouds. It was not a pleasant place, making it perfect for a fugitive with a bounty on his head to hide.

Kinshin wrapped her arms around herself as if it would stop the scary stares that she was receiving. She walked extra close to Hidan, half-expecting him to yell at her for it, but he never did. His presence actually shifted to something that was almost comforting.

"Filth," commented Kakuzu dryly. He looked around for anyone that he recognized from his bingo book. If he was going to find bounties anywhere, this was a good place to start.

The town square was in worse shape than the rest of the village. An old fountain loomed in the middle of the cracked stone walkways, no longer running the murky, fungus-thick water through its pipes. Without the water that would have been spraying over it, it looked like a statue, and Kinshin stopped to look at it.

Hidan and Kakuzu both stopped as well, looking at her with curiosity and irritation, respectively.

"I remember he said something about a statue of an oni," she explained.

The two men looked up at the fountain. It was, indeed, an oni, wearing a loincloth and squatting down with his club held over his head menacingly. The stone figure had lost a horn at some point, and the paint that had once made him red was so far gone that it looked more like the creature had chickenpox.

"Great," muttered Hidan. "So now what?"

"We wait," Kakuzu said. "We'll find a vantage point of the square, and watch for any sign of him." He glanced around, stopping when he spotted a tall building, which loomed over the center, giving anyone looking from one of the topmost front windows a perfect view on the entire square. "There," Kakuzu pointed out. "We'll stay in that hotel."

"Perfect," was Hidan's sarcastic reply. "It looks like the epitome of cleanliness."

"Is it safe?" asked Kinshin as she followed along after the two.

Hidan gave her a look, "No more dangerous than traveling around with us."

Kakuzu asked (read: threatened) the receptionist, a mannish woman who didn't seem all that interested in customer service at first, for one of the front rooms near the top, and she was quick to hand him a key with the number 914 on it.

The door creaked on its hinges like nails on a chalkboard, and the room itself was just as one would expect it to be: filthy, dark, and damp. There was only one bed, but it was doubtful that any of them would even _want_ to fight over it.

Kakuzu smeared at the grime that coated the window with his sleeve until it was clean enough to see through, after which he pulled a chair across the room and sat in it, peering through the glass. He hoped Okaji would show up soon, because they wouldn't be leaving that hotel room until he did.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Short chapter, I know. Not much to say about it.**

**Song is Time is Running Out by Muse.  
><strong>


	5. Airplanes

**Chapter Four**  
><em>"Can we pretend that airplanes<br>In the night sky are like shooting stars?  
>I could really use a wish right now<br>Wish right now, wish right now."_

They watched the fountain in shifts, and after nearly twenty-four hours of nonstop surveillance, it was Kinshin who finally spotted their target.

"I found him!" she squealed.

In an instant, all three faces were pressed against the pane as if the answer to the secret of life were on the other side. Below, Okaji stood near the fountain for a few minutes, until he was approached by a woman, and the two left together.

"Know what she looks like?" Hidan asked offhandedly.

Kakuzu nodded, grunting.

"What?" asked Kinshin. "What does she look like?"

"A whore," was Kakuzu's answer.

Kinshin crinkled her nose. "That's not very nice."

"No, really," Hidan told her. "She looks like a prostitute." He stepped away from the window and leaned against the wall, not quite brave enough to sit on the bed. "What I wanna know is why you didn't go get him, Kakuzu."

"He has his guard up," the tall man answered, shooing Kinshin out of the chair so he could sit. "We probably got a lot of talk going," he explained. "It would be best to watch him for a few days, see if he has a routine, and catch him when he least expects it. What time is it?"

Hidan glanced at the clock, "Three-twelve, if that piece of shit is right."

"So if he comes by three-twelve tomorrow, we can assume he does that every day, right?" Kinshin asked, starting to understand.

"Exactly," said Kakuzu, settling in once more to keep an eye on the square.

* * *

><p>The next day, a little after three o'clock, Okaji stood in the square once more, leaning against the edge of the fountain. From the same direction as the woman from the day before, a different woman approached him, and he left with her the way he had come. And the day after that, yet another woman took part in the routine.<p>

Kakuzu slid his chair away from the window as the two walked away together below. He thought quietly while he watched Hidan pray and Kinshin pick at a scab on her knee. "We get him tomorrow," he said at last, making his companions look his way.

"Finally," moaned Hidan.

"He's an S-rank shinobi," Kakuzu told them. "He'll know if we follow him, so we'll have to find another way." With this, he gestured for Kinshin to stand up from the floor, and circled her like a breeder examined a dog. "You might even finally be of some use. In any case, you'll have to do."

"Do what?"

"We'll intercept tomorrows 'entertainment' and you'll take her place." Kakuzu returned to his seat and folded his hands. "You'll leave a trail for us, and we'll follow along when you're far enough ahead that he won't notice."

"But I don't-"

"I'm not giving you a choice," Kakuzu growled. "If you do this right, I'll let you live. That should be incentive enough for you to just play along with him."

Kinshin blushed crimson. "Play along?"

Hidan rolled his eyes, "Don't worry. We'll be there before he can hurt your _delicate sensibilities_."

"But I don't know the first thing about talking to men!"

Hidan and Kakuzu both glared.

"No, I mean…" her shoulders slumped. "I can't do this."

Kakuzu walked to the door, pausing to look at her before he opened it. "You're going to need something else to wear," he said. "Come on."

* * *

><p>"How about this?"<p>

Kakuzu and Kinshin both looked over at Hidan.

"Tch. Pervert," mutter Kakuzu, as Hidan put the barely-there lingerie back on the rack.

"Why do I need, uh, _this_ stuff?" Kinshin stared at the women's intimate apparel in mortification. "It's not like I actually have to… with him. Right?"

Kakuzu handed her a hanger with a cute flowery bra and panty set. "You'll do what you have to in order to keep him distracted," he said harshly. "And don't make _this one_ unrecognizable."

She pouted. "I still don't see how that was my fault. He was trying to kill me!"

"It actually is a little impressive," Hidan interjected, looking at a mannequin in a lacy panty. "A little, untrained thing like you, beating a notable samurai."

"He was drunk," Kinshin explained. "He wasn't nearly as good as he was when I saw him in the tournament. At his best, _you two_ would have had trouble beating him."

Hidan scoffed. "Please. At his best, he couldn't beat me _at my worst_."

"Doesn't matter now," she muttered. "Just proves that there are no real heroes in the world."

"About time you figured that out."

Kakuzu came back with another underwear set and gave it to her. "Go try those on," he commanded, shoving her in the direction of the dressing room.

"They're on sale, aren't they?" Hidan didn't even really need the answer to know he was right.

"This is horrible," moaned Kinshin on the other side of the door.

"Open the door," Kakuzu demanded. His tone left no room for defiance, and the door inched open a second later.

Hidan and Kakuzu both looked through the crack at her in the flowered set that Kakuzu had picked first. "She's too fucking skinny," Hidan dismissed, walking away.

Kakuzu nodded slightly. "Try the other one on and then open the door again."

When the door cracked open once more, she stood in a corset with attached garter belt. At least it didn't advertise how bony she was.

"The flowers suit her better," Hidan said, and Kakuzu couldn't help but agree. But, for this occasion, the corset would give Okaji a better impression.

"Take it off and get dressed."

* * *

><p>Kinshin struggled to keep up under the weight of the shopping bags. Kakuzu seemed to have gone all out to get this bounty. She wondered briefly if he was scared that Okaji would be hard to beat. When he turned and barked at her to keep up, she shook the thought off and hurried after him. There was no way he would worry about something like that.<p>

Once in their hotel room, Kakuzu looked the girl over once more. She was scrawnier than most men liked, scarred and calloused, and unladylike in every conceivable way. But she had one thing on her side: youthful features. Her face was cherubic, and her eyes were wide and innocent, and she looked nothing like a trained assassin. Being with her would bring any man's guard down, so, despite her many flaws, she was quite perfect for what he intended to use her for. She only needed some training.

He grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look into his eyes, watching as redness spread across her face at the proximity. His other hand on her shoulder pushed her to the bed, and she cried out in protest, not noticing his position over her at first.

His left hand moved from her chin, pinning her down by the hip, while his right hand was used to keep her hands out of the way. He kept his mask on, having no intention of truly doing anything 'intimate' with the girl. In comparison to him, even if she was Hidan's age, she was still only a child.

"What are you doing?" she asked, having a good idea of what was going on, and simply not believing it.

"You will learn the ways of this world you've fallen into."

"You mean this world you've forced me into?" She stared defiantly into his eyes. She was afraid, but she had come to realize that no matter what she did, he'd probably kill her anyway.

Kakuzu glared back, but released her. "Kunoichi younger than you, go through much worse," he said.

"I'm not a kunoichi," she argued as she watched him return to his chair.

The ex-waterfall-nin reached for one of the shopping bags and pulled a short, cylindrical object out. It looked like a very short sword, almost. It was plain, polished oak with no embellishments, with a tiny hook of the side for attaching it to its owners clothing.

Kakuzu handed it to her. "This is a _tanto_. It's only for the event that something goes wrong," he warned her. "I don't want you using it carelessly against Okaji, or to even let him know you have it."

Kinshin took it, pulling it from its sheath and looking over the short blade. She was no judge of quality, but there didn't appear to be anything wrong with it. She looked curiously up at Kakuzu, who took it back and held it as if he intended to attack with it.

"This is how it is held. There isn't much reason to teach you how to use it, but we'll work on your form, at least."

Kinshin paid close attention to anything Kakuzu was willing to teach her about the weapon and combat in general. She practiced diligently for several hours, only pausing to eat dinner, and finally going to sleep when she was ordered to. Even in her dreams, she went over all she had learned, preparing herself for the next day.

* * *

><p>Kinshin fidgeted nervously with her short skirt, trying her best not to acknowledge the blade, fastened neatly into the left sleeve of her loose jacket. She leaned against the shadowed wall and awaited Okaji's arrival. The old fountain was her only view from the alley where she stood, out of everyone else's way for the most part.<p>

In her disguise, she blended in with her surroundings well; much better than when she had first arrived, at least, though one had to question if that had anything to do with her S-rank missing-nin companions. Nobody really gave her a second glance, to her relief. Kakuzu had been right when he had called her unmemorable, regardless of his intentions when he had said it that morning.

She had no idea what time it was, but when Okaji appeared, she could certainly guess. She went to step out, but stopped herself, Kakuzu's advice replaying in her mind.

"_Make him wait. When you see him, count to ten before approaching him."_

Never mind that she couldn't count past five, she understood well enough what he had meant. She instead listened to her heart beat, noting with some distress that it was beating far too rapidly, especially if she wanted to convince Okaji that nothing about the situation was amiss. She took a moment to steady her nerves, then smiled and walked slowly toward him.

He smiled and greeted her as he began leading her away from the square. After a few seconds, he asked her what her name was.

"Kinshin," she answered, not really thinking about it, and a little excited to finally get to use the name now that she had one. Discreetly, she dropped a pink bead as she walked, leaving a trail for Hidan and Kakuzu to follow.

"Kinshin, huh? Strange name. Most of the girls are named after flowers."

She blinked. Perhaps her real name was a mistake, but what was done was done. She made sure to take note of the flower name thing for future use, though. "I'm not like most girls," she decided aloud.

He laughed, throwing his head back and letting his whole body shake with the noise. "You sure aren't," he agreed. "Where do you come from, Kinshin?"

She paused thoughtfully. "I don't know," she admitted. "I've been alone my whole life."

"As have I," he said, putting an arm around her. "Except for my brother, I never had a family."

She resisted tensing up. Kakuzu had told her that recoiling was the worst possible thing she could do in such a situation. Instead, she smiled sweetly and remembered to drop another bead. "Brother? What's his name? Is he older or younger?"

"Kojishi. Younger. Why so interested in my brother?"

"No reason. I've just always wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister." Aside from his appearance, which would scare anyone, Okaji seemed really kind. She found herself comfortable talking to him, "When I was little, I made up a family for myself. There was Mama and Papa and Neechan…"

"Those were their names?"

"Yes. I'm not very creative," she blushed. After a moment, she looked around. They had traveled to a part of the town that she didn't recognize, and she wondered if she could use the trail she had left to find her way back. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"Tell me, how old are you?"

She thought back. "Seventeen, maybe eighteen. I'm not completely sure." Kinshin's gut twisted nervously. Why was he asking her that? And why hadn't he answered her question?

Okaji sighed. "You're the youngest one, yet," he muttered.

As the buildings thinned out and they entered the countryside, Kinshin became more nervous. On top of the suspicious behavior from Okaji, she had also run out of beads. If she wanted to be saved by Hidan and Kakuzu, she could go no farther.

"Where are we going?" asked again, a little more insistently. She willed herself to be heavier, as if she could anchor herself to the road with just her thoughts.

He looked at her. "I pay a lot of money for your boss to keep sending girls to me, even though none ever come back," he said. He reached for her arm and tried to tug her along, but she refused to go another step. "There's a shelter, not far from here," he sighed, exasperated. "You can go there until it's safe for you to get away from Kenba."

"But I don't want to _get away_!" she shouted without really thinking about it, then she paused and thought this over. She didn't want to get away from her captors? That was ridiculous. Looking around for said captors, and noting briefly that the sun was setting (just how long had they been walking?), she looked sternly at him.

"I will go," she whispered, interrupting whatever he was about to say. "But you have to come with."

"I can't. There are other girls…"

"Listen to me! There are two men who want to kill you…!"

Okaji's look over her shoulder made her pause. Upon looking, her fears were confirmed, as she saw the two Akatsuki members approaching. Some part of her suggested that she get out of the way, that she not be between them and their prey. She didn't listen, wondering just how much they had heard, and whether or not she would live to see the sunrise.

Okaji snarled and pushed Kinshin aside, running in to attack Kakuzu and Hidan. She sat on the dirt road and watched wide-eyed as the three men fought as shinobi, exchanging highly-trained blows and releasing _jutsu_ at one another. Of course, even if Okaji could beat one of them, he certainly couldn't beat both.

He fell quickly, his face going blue as Kakuzu's coarse, black threads wrapped themselves tightly around his thick neck. His eyes were wide as his struggling grew weaker, and Kinshin felt guilt come over her when he looked at her. He stopped moving shortly afterward, his eyes closing in what she might have been able to convince herself was slumber.

"Good job stalling him," Hidan complimented her as Kakuzu went to make sure their target was truly dead. The rare praise fell on deaf ears, as Kinshin was too busy watching Kakuzu haul Okaji's dead body up.

"It's not fair," she mumbled as they began walking. They had to get out of town quickly to keep other bounty hunters from coming after them.

Kakuzu shot a glance over his shoulder at her. "What?"

"He didn't deserve to die," she said, wiping hot tears from her eyes. They continued to fall despite her best efforts. "He was trying to help those girls."

Kakuzu paused, turning to look at her fully. "Do you know why he had a bounty on him to begin with? He and his brother killed dozens of civilians from their village before they left," he told her, staring harshly at her. "Innocent or not, it doesn't matter to me. But you didn't seem to have any problems killing Idashi."

She bit her lip. It was true. She had felt disturbed by it at first, but the memory hadn't stayed with her for long. She hadn't lost any sleep over his death. Self-deluded as it may have been, she actually felt justified in the matter.

"Exactly. Now quit your crying," and he walked on.

She followed slowly, staring at her feet. Even at her snail's pace, Kakuzu didn't go very far ahead of her, and Hidan adjusted his pace to keep just behind her. The fact that neither snapped at her to hurry up would have been odd to her if she had been paying attention.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Vocabulary: A tanto is a knife. And Neechan means big sister.


	6. Jar of Hearts

**Chapter Five**_  
>"Who do you think you are?<br>Runnin' 'round leaving scars  
>Collecting your jar of hearts<br>And tearing love apart  
>You're gonna catch a cold<br>From the ice inside your soul  
>So don't come back for me<br>Don't come back at all."_

Hidan reclined against the exterior wall of a wood shack, one hand gripping his pendant, the other shielding his eyes from the midday sun. Beside him, Kinshin sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, a cheek pressed against one of the bony joints as she glanced dully at Hidan.

"I don't care if you pout," Hidan muttered, not bothering to look at her, "But stop fucking staring at me."

"What do you think happens when you die?"

"What?"

She sighed, "I never thought about it before, but… I guess I've been doing a lot of thinking since yesterday. I mean, you seem pretty educated on death."

"Jashin-sama gets you."

Kinshin raised an eyebrow, but she knew better than to speak any doubt about Hidan's "Jashin-sama." Instead, she asked, "And then what?"

He scratched his head, "He punishes you."

"That doesn't sound good."

Hidan glared at her, "That's because you're a blaspheming heathen."

She stretched her legs out and leaned forward, touching her toes. "How do you know if someone deserves to die?" she asked.

Hidan grinned and stood up, "_Everyone_ deserves to die."

"We may be able to agree on that," Kakuzu's voice rumbled as he exited the building. He carried a case at his side, which Kinshin noticed with the tiniest hint of dread.

"So, you got paid for him, right?" she asked as she sidled up to Kakuzu's elbow.

He looked down at her, "Yes. I need you to do one more thing when we get into the next town. And then you won't be travelling with us anymore."

"Okay. What do you need me to do?"

"Just wait." Kakuzu led them along a path until it emerged at the main road, where they then walked another few miles to the next village.

It was large and colorful. Everywhere there were people hurrying along to perform their daily duties, buying and selling goods along the main street, and leading mules pulling wagons to deliver items to the nearby businesses. It was much nicer than Kenba had been.

They entered a tea shop, where Kakuzu once again ordered the least expensive things on the menu: three orders of rice, and a pot of tea for them to share. Hidan, of course, complained about how cheap Kakuzu was. Kinshin, as per usual, ate contently and finished off the ranting Hidan's meal as well.

It was a little sad for her, thinking of how this would be the last meal she shared with the two men. Despite how scary they could be, she had grown fond of them. She didn't bother to hold in a giggle at their bickering as she finished her tea.

* * *

><p>The day had darkened to evening when Kakuzu finally led her to a building and told her that this was the last stop before their business was finished. She looked up at the building. It had two stories, the top having a lot of windows, and from the looks of it, they were at the back door.<p>

Kakuzu knocked and a second later, a tiny door just above Kinshin's head swung open and all that could be seen were thick eyebrows set over a pair of tiny black eyes.

"I have merchandise to sell," Kakuzu said, and the man on the other side of the door opened it instantly. Kakuzu pushed Kinshin forward while the man looked her over.

"Come in. You'll have to speak to the mistress."

Kinshin put up some resistance as Kakuzu grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in, and the other man closed and locked the door behind them. She couldn't believe this was happening, and she wondered if this was why Hidan had left them after lunch, claiming that there was a Jashinist temple nearby. Had Kakuzu and Hidan been planning this all along?

The man came back with a middle-aged woman dressed in a silk kimono. The woman grabbed Kinshin by the chin and examined her face, then changed her grip to hold the younger girl's shoulders and look over the rest of her scrawny body.

"I'll need a moment to examine it," said the woman to Kakuzu. "There is no market here for pretty young boys."

Kakuzu nodded and grabbed Kinshin by the back of her _haori_, removing the jacket that she still wore from her disguise in Kenba, taking away her only weapon in the process. He then put a hand in her hair and held her firmly in place. Kinshin questioned this behavior for only a second before she realized what was going on.

The woman placed a hand on Kinshin's chest, raising a skeptical eyebrow up at Kakuzu. She then removed her hand and found the hem of the girl's skirt, reaching up between her legs.

Kinshin clenched her eyes shut at the intrusion, fighting back tears. She struggled against Kakuzu's hold, but the other man came forward and slapped her cheek with the harsh command to be still.

The woman finally stood up strait and pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve, wiping her hands. She looked at Kakuzu with a smile. "Female, and still intact," she reported. "A little androgynous, and definitely not in the best shape for one of Madame Misaki's girls, but a few weeks should see those scars of hers faded. I'll give you ten-thousand ryo for her."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at the woman. "Fifty-thousand," he haggled.

Madame Misaki was taken aback for a moment, as if she wasn't used to people defying her. Then she plastered a fake smile on her painted lips and bowed her head. "I cannot give you more than twenty-thousand," she said in her sugarcoated voice.

"Thirty-thousand ryo, or I take the girl elsewhere."

Misaki reluctantly agreed, and in the next few minutes, money exchanged hands and Kakuzu was leaving. Kinshin stared after him bitterly, internally begging him to glance back at her. All it would take for her to believe that his intention _wasn't _to betray her would be a tiny look back at her.

But he didn't look back.

* * *

><p>Kakuzu found Hidan waiting just outside the red-light district, where Kinshin had unwittingly followed him less than an hour before. The girl really was quite stupid. Hidan didn't look surprised that Kinshin was no longer with him.<p>

The Jashinist looked uninterestedly at Kakuzu. "Where's Kinshin?"

Kakuzu weighed his briefcase with one hand, while feeling the sack of coins that he had gotten from pawning her clothes and tanto through his cloak. "I sold her," he answered as he went by his foul-mouthed partner.

"You sold her?" Hidan repeated. "Good fucking riddance. Where did you sell her?"

"What does it matter?"

Hidan shrugged, "Just curious. Did a whore house actually take her?"

"Madame Misaki," Kakuzu answered. "She went for thirty-thousand ryo."

Hidan snorted, "She would have made a better sacrifice to Jashin-sama."

"Maybe I should have sold _you_ instead. At least she would shut up when she was told to."

"What? You miss her?"

"Of course not. That's the stupidest thing you've ever said."

Hidan shrugged, "What the hell ever. Even I can admit that it wasn't bad having a female around. Especially such a fast learner."

Kakuzu snorted. "She was as much of an idiot as you are."

Walking along the main road, Hidan paused. "I have to go pray," he said.

"I don't care what you do."

"Just don't choose an inn without me. You pick the shittiest places!"

Kakuzu ignored his partner as the two parted ways. He looked down at his case, now with an extra thirty-thousand ryo in addition to the price that had been on Okaji's head. After a moment, he growled under his breath and cut down a narrow alley between two bars.

* * *

><p>Hidan looked up at the red arbor that separated him from the red-light district. He had never entered such an area, having no reason to before. Jashin-sama wasn't specific on whether sex was a bad thing or a good one, but a follower of Hidan's caliber had no use for the act regardless. Jashinism was taking the energy of pain and converting it to pleasure, and as such, activities done for pleasure among Jashinists were quite different from <em>atheists<em>.

He said a quick prayer to Jashin-sama, asking that this deed, if a sin, be forgiven. Then, with a breath, he continued on. It was a pain to find Madame Misaki's brothel, because that wasn't what the official name of the place was. Most people knew it by the name that was on the sign above the large picture window that displayed all of the girls one could choose from. That sign read: "Fantasies."

Hidan looked up at the red neon sign with a hint of disdain. While watching people suffer was an appealing pastime to him, the thought that Kinshin was inside, being auctioned off as a fantasy was both disturbing and, honestly, ridiculous. Could there really be a man in the world that found Kinshin attractive?

Inside was decorated with furs and red-glassed lamps, thrusting everything in disorienting shades of pink, heavily contrasted by deep shadows. Men sat on fuzzy chairs, surrounded and being served sake by women. There were also a few bouncers standing around, as well as a particularly large one at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

A well-groomed woman approached him and introduced herself as Madame Misaki, and Hidan was glad for his luck. The sooner he could find out where Kinshin was, the sooner he could kill all of these useless fucks and haul her out of there.

* * *

><p>Kinshin kicked at anyone who got near enough for her to reach. All around her, women timidly worked around her outbursts, cleaning and dressing her. Whenever she could land a foot to someone's gut or face, she felt an inkling of satisfaction creep through her. It disturbed her that she felt this way, having been primarily non-violent until very recently, but she couldn't really stop herself.<p>

"Get that bitch under control!" bellowed one of the men who supervised, swinging a whip down on one of the women. She clenched her eyes against the pain, but continued to work steadily.

Kinshin paused mid-kick. Sure, she didn't want this, but neither did any of the other girls, and the thought that her behavior was getting them hurt made her calm down. She'd get away from here, but not at the expense of someone who didn't deserve it.

Madame Misaki, she deserved it. Kinshin grit her teeth. _Kakuzu_, he deserved it, too.

"Hurry up. She's got a client," snapped another man. The ladies complied and finished their duties quickly.

Kinshin was hastily pulled to her feet and wrapped in a tiny kimono that would have had someone with any sense of modesty feeling exposed. Kinshin was no such person. Instead she made a halfhearted attempt to fight back as she was dragged into a room down the hall and tossed in.

She lay sprawled on the soft carpet for a moment, exhausted, before rolling onto her back and sitting up. Kinshin glared at the door, knowing that she didn't have long before someone came through with the intent to sleep with her. Depending who it was, she might have a chance at fighting him off, but with more than half the male population being bigger than her, she wasn't about to get her hopes up.

The knob turned, and she directed her gaze to the tiny window with lime green sheer curtains defiantly. Out of the corner of her eye, a black and red cloak came through the door.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean? Where is she?"<p>

Misaki tried to calm the irate man, "She's already been rented for the hour. If you'd like to wait, or select one of the others…"

"I want to know _what_ stupid motherfucker even wanted her!" Hidan cursed at the woman.

Misaki took a fearful half step away from him, and a few of her goons came closer, preparing for a fight. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, sir," said Misaki, brave now that she had some armed men between her and the threat.

Hidan pulled a pike from his cloak, knowing he'd be unable to maneuver his scythe properly in the small space. No matter, he wouldn't need it against these weapon-flailing pussies, anyway. With only a quick pre-kill prayer to Jashin, he ran the closest guard through and moved around his falling corpse to stab the next.

Chaos overtook the room as everyone who wasn't fighting began to panic. Women hid under tables, clients ran out regardless of not yet receiving what they'd paid for. Expensive china shattered, fine cloth was torn. Misaki watched as her business crumbled and her employees died around her. With all the commotion, she'd be lucky if the prostitutes didn't take the chance to run away.

Hidan killed the last guard in the room and made his way to the stairs, where more were pouring down to see what the commotion was about. He quickly disposed of them as well and went on, leaving Madame Misaki in the lounge behind him. He threw doors open as he went, not bothering to close them despite what was behind them.

Back on the main floor, Misaki looked around the wreckage despairingly. She had worked her whole life, started at the bottom and worked her way up, until she had managed to lie and cheat her way to the top. She had her own brothel, twenty-three whores, forty-nine guards, and money enough to have whatever luxury her heart desired.

Until now. She was ruined now. She'd lose more money than she could possibly make back, and that's if her clients would feel safe enough to return. Rebuilding, rehiring, restocking… There was no time left for her. She was too old.

She looked at a candle on an antique sideboard within her reach. She pulled a cigarette out and lit it on the flame, then resolutely threw the candle into a pile of shredded silk. As it began to smoke, she sat in one of the overstuffed chairs and puffed peacefully at her cigarette.

* * *

><p>"What are <em>you<em> doing here?"

Kakuzu ignored her as he closed the door behind him and stepped further into the room. He approached her slowly, looking down at her from where he stood. "We're leaving," he told her, hauling her to her feet.

She wretched her arm away from him, knowing that he let her, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to. "No!" she shrieked at him. "I _hate_ you! I've never hated anyone as much as I hate you!"

"Shut up! If you're difficult I'll just take what I paid for and leave you here. Do you have any idea how expensive a virgin is?"

"Does thirty-thousand ryo sound right?"

"Useless girl," he growled pulling her over a shoulder. Below, a lot of noise had started up, and now he heard footsteps approaching. He turned and held his free hand out toward the door, ready to attack as it opened.

Hidan and Kakuzu stared at each other for a second, both just a little dumbfounded at finding the other in such a place. It was Kinshin who broke the silence first, upon looking back and spotting the Jashinist.

"Hidan-san, I'm so happy to see you! Make him put me down," she pleaded. Hidan's eye twitched, and Kakuzu instantly dropped Kinshin on her ass.

"Let's just go before we attract any more attention," Kakuzu muttered as he walked past Hidan and began down the hall.

Kinshin climbed to her feet and adjusted her kimono. "Did you know he was going to sell me?" she asked Hidan as they followed Kakuzu to the stairs.

"Well, I didn't think he _wouldn't_ sell you."

"No way!" She pouted, "And to think I didn't want to leave you jerks…" She sniffed, noticing the black clouds that were beginning to fill the air. "Is that smoke?"

"The first floor is on fire," Kakuzu said. With a grunt, he crossed the hall and punched a hole in the wall. The building lurched from the combined assaults of the fire and Kakuzu's fist, and began to sway unsteadily as the flames burned away at the support beams. The smoke began to clear through the hole as the cool night air combated against the heat from within the building.

Kinshin looked down at the ground from the hole. It wasn't far enough that she figured she'd die from the fall, but she knew it was high enough to result in broken bones. Before she could voice this, however, Hidan heaved her up onto his back. She struggled briefly with his scythe for a comfortable spot, and held his shoulders tightly as he leapt to the roof of the building across the street.

Kakuzu followed, and it was silently decided that they should skip the inn for the night and get as far from the town as possible. They didn't stop their fast pace until they had gone for at least fifteen minutes. Finding the spot they had chosen suitable, they built a fire in the clearing.

"You, girl," Kakuzu's deep voice rumbled as he spoke, pulling the food that he was about to give her out of her reach. "You owe me a cherry."

She blushed. "Well, you owe me thirty-thousand ryo, a third of Okaji's bounty, and new clothes. And I want a sword," retorted Kinshin. "When I get those, you'll get your fucking cherry." She snatched the piece of meat from Kakuzu and stuffed it into her mouth.

Hidan laughed and leaned against a tree. "Kinshin-chan, you've got potential," he told her.

"Rearry?" she asked around a mouthful of dry squirrel meat or rabbit meat or whatever meat it was.

"A long time ago," Hidan said, "There used to be a test they used on genin to decide who'd make the best shinobi. It involved giving them targets to kill, but the killing itself wasn't what was judged, it was how they handled it."

Her chewing slowed to a stop as she listened, and she finally swallowed when he finished speaking. "I'm actually kind of ashamed of myself for not feeling worse about Idashi," she admitted. "I realize now that my life has been abnormally easy for an orphan, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been through bad things. You learn to bounce back."

"Stop talking like it's a bad thing," Hidan demanded. "I'd have killed you a long time ago if you hadn't shown so much potential." He looked to Kakuzu, "We should get her that sword. I think she'd be good with it."

"Really? You mean it?" Her eyes lit up, "Oh, that would be the best!"

Kakuzu glared at the both of them, irritated that they were suggesting he spend his money. It didn't look like he intended to bend, and Kinshin bounced up onto her knees and leaned toward him.

"If I had a way of protecting myself, I wouldn't be a burden. And if I could fight, it'd be that much easier for you to collect bounties," she reasoned. "I could even be getting the small ones that you wouldn't waste your time with, anyway, while you collected larger—"

"If it will shut you up, you'll get your damned sword."

"Thank you, Kakuzu-san! It almost makes me _forget about how you sold me_," Kinshin nudged playfully at him.

He shoved her out of his personal space. "Women," he snorted. "Never let anything go."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Uh, not much to say...**

**Song is Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri.  
><strong>


	7. Going Away

**Chapter Six**_  
>"I'm going away. I'm going my way<br>Finally it's my time to be lonely, and lost, unloved and I can't wait  
>Don't forget what I said. Don't forget my letter<br>Every night I pray for you. I don't got no religion  
>Isn't that something? I'll miss those days."<em>

Kinshin stared in admiration at the katana in her hands. It was heavier than she remembered Idashi's being. Beside her, Kakuzu counted what was left of his money and muttered to himself. It was worth the angry stare he directed at her in her opinion, though. She now had new clothes, shoes, and a katana to show for it.

"If you lose that, you won't get another," he warned her, and she believed him. He turned to Hidan, then. "It's almost time to seal the ichibi."

"What's that mean?" Kinshin asked, strapping the sword onto her back.

"It means you need to stay here and out of the way," he said. "We'll find you when we've finished."

Hidan nudged her as he went by her. "We'll start your kenjutsu lessons when I'm done." And with that, the Akatsuki members were gone.

* * *

><p>Kinshin wandered the streets alone. It was odd being alone again after weeks of traveling around with Hidan and Kakuzu. She was slowly remembering what being penniless and hungry was like. At least people didn't glare at her when she got too close to their stalls anymore, though. Being properly clothed had some advantages—even if shoes were unnecessarily uncomfortable.<p>

Colorful streamers and lanterns decorated the streets, and as she neared the village center, the kiosks became more frequent along the road, selling everything from delicious-smelling foods, to toys and accessories, and even held simple games which one could pay to play for the chance to win a prize.

Kinshin eyed an _ikayaki_ stand as she walked by. It was nearing evening, and she hadn't eaten since breakfast, having been hoping Kakuzu would return and give her some food before she had to resort to stealing. She lingered on the squid for a few seconds more before deciding against it. Here, she had a chance to make a new start, one that didn't involve stealing, and she was about to squander it because she hadn't eaten in a few hours? She was ashamed of herself.

The sword on her back was getting really heavy, though. She found a bench where people who had paid for their food were sitting and eating, and she tugged the katana off, leaning it against the wood of the bench beside her. Little did she know, as she stretched and massaged her aching shoulder, that someone had been following her for the past twenty minutes.

The most common thing for a person to say when something of theirs goes missing is, "I only looked away for a second." Kinshin was about to find out what that felt like.

There were a lot of people in the area. A lot of people crossed paths, accidentally bumped into other people. That's what happened when every person in town was on the street at the same time. She didn't pay much attention to the man who bumped her knees as he walked by. It was more of a change in the air, a feeling that something was wrong that made her actually stop and look around. And that's when she noticed that her katana had gone missing.

Looking out into the crowd, she instantly knew who had taken it without having to see the sword. His posture, his mannerisms, his _everything_ reminded her of herself. She narrowed her eyes and started off through the crowd after him. _Don't pickpocket a pickpocket._ It was quickly getting dark, and she still hadn't found the thief who had taken her sword. He could have been anywhere. She had the advantage of knowing what he looked like, but he had the advantage of knowing the area. Also, hiding from someone was always easier than looking for them.

She found a restaurant and ducked inside, getting cold and tired, and realizing that she wouldn't be able to get a hotel room. How long did it take to do _whatever_ it was Hidan and Kakuzu were off doing? She looked out onto the street, where businesses were closing up for the night.

"Excuse me," called a voice from within the restaurant. "We'll be closing in a few minutes."

Kinshin looked over her shoulder at the woman who had spoken to her. She looked to be a little older than Kinshin, but not by much. Kinshin sighed, "Sorry. I was just looking for someone."

"I might be able to help you," she offered. "Who are you looking for?"

"I don't know his name. He stole something from me earlier and ran off."

The waitress looked around nervously before standing aside and ushering Kinshin into the dining room. She told her sit down, and went to the register, coming back with paper and a pencil. "Can you draw him?"

Kinshin took up the pencil. She had never tried drawing before. She put the tip to the paper and started drawing, describing the thief as she went. "He had kind of a big nose, and green eyes, I think. And his face was sort of like this, and his hair went like _this_." She stopped when she was satisfied and looked to the helpful waitress.

"No offense, but it doesn't really look like a person. Looks more like a bent stew pot."

Kinshin reexamined her picture. It looked perfectly fine to her, an excellent rendering of the crook, really. "I don't see it."

"May I try?" She took the paper and flipped it over, brushing the pencil over the backside. "You said he had a big nose? Bird-like?"

"No, more pointy than that."

She complied, and sketched shaggy hair like Kinshin had described it. "I'm Akemi, by the way," she said, drawing the eyebrows.

"I'm Kinshin—Not so thick. And his eyes were more slanted and deeper."

Akemi made the changes and soon she had drawn a convincing portrait of the thief. Kinshin accepted it when it was given to her and turned to leave.

"Thanks for your help."

"You're not going out looking for him tonight, are you?" Akemi asked, concerned.

Kinshin shrugged, "I don't have anything else to do."

Akemi looked a little surprised and then she smiled. "Help me lock up. You can stay with me tonight, and I'll help you look for your thief in the morning."

* * *

><p>Dawn came quickly, and Akemi and Kinshin were on the street before most of the stores had opened.<p>

"I'm used to getting up early to open the restaurant," Akemi had told Kinshin over breakfast.

Using Akemi's picture, they asked any person they came upon if they recognized the thief. Either said thief was excellent at hiding, or he had a lot of people willing to lie for him. It was probably the former. Though driven to find her sword, Kinshin was continuously distracted by the decorations around the village.

"_Tanabata_ is my favorite festival of the whole year," Akemi confided in Kinshin as they made their way through the streets that were slowly filling up again.

"Tanabata?"

"You've never heard of it? It's the star festival," Akemi told her. "It's the one day a year when the two lovers can be together. Ah, it's so romantic! Makes me wish I had a boyfriend." She glanced over at Kinshin, "Do _you_ have a boyfriend?"

Kinshin's mind filled with silvery-white hair and sparkling magenta eyes, and her entire body shuddered with the effort of clearing the image from her head. "No!" she managed to sputter, feeling silly for not only thinking of _Hidan_ of all people, but also getting so embarrassed over such a simple question.

Akemi giggled at Kinshin's reaction, "Oh, somebody has a crush! Maybe you can wish for him to like you back tomorrow night."

Kinshin was curious about this. "Wish?" she parroted.

"You don't know about _that_, either? On the third night of Tanabata, we write wishes and hang them on bamboo trees." Akemi sighed and clasped her hands, blushing, "I'm going to wish for a boyfriend. Someone strong and smart, who will protect me from _Redi-bosu_."

Kinshin let out a chuckle. She wondered if this is what it was like to be normal, and have normal conversations while on normal walks with normal girl-friends. But Kinshin wasn't normal, and she and Akemi weren't friends under normal circumstances, and this was most definitely _not_ a normal walk. She had someone to find, beat senseless, and then turn over to the police; ideally in that order. Kinshin didn't even want to think about what Hidan and Kakuzu would say if they found out about this whole mess.

"What are you going to wish for, Kinshin-chan?"

Kinshin paused her train of thought. What would she wish for? She could wish to be an accomplished swordswoman, and then become the hero that she no longer believed existed after these last few weeks. While on that train of thought, she could wish to have her sword back, but even without Akemi's help, she was confident she could do that all on her own. And, though she knew better than to overestimate their kindness, either Hidan or Kakuzu might be willing to help her track down the thief when they finally came back for her. Then she considered that they weren't going to come back; that they had left her there with no intention of returning. The thought made her a little sick to her stomach.

"I didn't mean to make your brain implode," Akemi muttered, seeing her new friend's utterly horrified expression.

"Sorry. I was thinking about something else." Kinshin looked to the clear blue sky, "I'm sure I'll know what I want when the time comes."

"Fair enough. Sort of a 'go-with-the-flow' thing going on. I like it." Akemi blinked ahead and then pointed to someone walking toward them on the road. "Is that the guy we're looking for?"

Kinshin followed Akemi's finger, and sure enough, there was the thief… And he had her katana strapped to his back! She didn't waste a second before running at him. The moment he saw her coming, he took off in the other direction.

He really was a good pickpocket in some respects. He knew the best routes through the village to take to make pursuit difficult. Kinshin could appreciate that; she might have been impressed if she weren't so very pissed off at the moment. Behind her, Akemi struggled to keep up with the chase, but Kinshin didn't have time to worry about her right that moment.

The thief ducked down alleys, jumped fences, climbed buildings to run across rooftops, but Kinshin chased him relentlessly. If she didn't catch him then, she'd probably never see her katana again. She was lucky he hadn't pawned it already.

At last, they came to chained gate, and as the thief made to scurry up it, Kinshin managed to grab his ankle, yanking him back down to the ground. He scrambled onto his knees and got ready to defend himself from a blow. His forearms blocked her as she reached forward, and to his surprise, her hands continued on over his block until she had hold of her sword and had yanked it over his head. She didn't bother to be gentle.

"I ought to… to cut your hands off, or something!" she yelled, shaking her sheathed blade at him.

He glared at her, "Go on, then! Do it!"

Akemi came racing up then, and nearly collapsed when she stopped a few feet away, panting heavily. "Are you"—wheeze—"going to turn him in?" she gasped, as she slowly caught her breath.

The thief looked between the two women, his attitude changing drastically. "Please," he all but begged suddenly. "I've already been caught two times," he explained. "If I'm caught again, I'll be executed!"

Akemi and Kinshin exchanged glances. Neither really knew if they believed his story, but if it was true, they didn't want him _dead_. Kinshin sighed.

"Fine, I won't tell the police," she agreed. As he was about to thank her, she held her hand out to silence him, "But you have to repay me for the trouble you caused."

"What do you want?"

Kinshin thought about it. She really couldn't think of anything she wanted, let alone something _he_ could give her. She turned to Akemi. "Can you think of a fitting punishment?"

Akemi thought for a second and then nodded, grinning. "I could use some help in the restaurant," she said. "Redi-bosu scares all the other waitresses away, and there's too much for me to do."

"That's it, then. You'll be working with Akemi-chan," Kinshin decided.

The thief stared at them both in disbelief. "That's it?"

"And don't think about running away, because we _will_ find you," Akemi said, her voice dropping down an octave and sounding very sinister, "And when we do, it won't be pleasant."

Kinshin shrugged the sword onto her back, not paying much attention to the conversation between Akemi and the thief from there on. She was happy to have it back, and her business with them was pretty much done. She looked around, assessing that it was already midafternoon, and they were past due for some lunch. But she still didn't have any money.

"It's Muyōna," she vaguely heard the thief say as she returned her attention to the discussion.

"That's terrible!" Akemi said. "Well, I can't call you _that_. How about… Yō?"

Muyōna, or Yō as he was now dubbed, rolled his eyes. "I've been called useless my whole life. I don't really care _what_ you call me."

"Well!" Kinshin interrupted, "I say we get something to eat, and then go back to the festival."

* * *

><p>It was evening the next night before Hidan and Kakuzu finally returned, both tired and irritable (or, rather, more irritable than usual). They found Kinshin sitting with two others, roughly her age, one male and one female. She waved cheerfully at them when she saw them approaching.<p>

"Time to go," said Hidan when he was close enough for her to hear.

Kinshin looked down at her new friends, still sitting on the bench, then back up at her companions. "We were just about to write our wishes," she told them. "Just a few more minutes? Please?"

Kakuzu glared at her and turned away, but didn't deny her. Hidan only shrugged and sat down on the bench as Akemi and Yō vacated it to go along with Kinshin and retrieve their _tanzaku_.

A moment later, Kinshin ran back to them. "What are the kanji in your names?" she asked them.

"Why the fuck do you need to know that?" Hidan asked, swearing even though he wasn't angry.

"I asked Akemi to write my wish for me, and she needs to know."

Giving in, Hidan told her his and then Kakuzu's, knowing the old grouch would just get impatient with her instead of telling her. She thanked him and ran off again.

"Like a child," Kakuzu muttered.

Hidan raised an eyebrow, "She _is_ a child. In some ways." Then they watched in silence as Kinshin and her new friends tied their strips of paper to the bamboo.

* * *

><p>"I'm going to miss them," Kinshin said as they left the village, heading north. She took a deep breath of the cool nighttime air and smiled, secretly very happy the two criminals had come back for her. "I hope my wish comes true."<p>

Hidan gave her a look. He was really curious about what she had wished for, especially if it involved him. He played nonchalant about it, though, "What did you wish for?"

"For the three of us to be together forever," she told him. She cupped her hand at her mouth and whispered with the intention of not having Kakuzu hear, "And I wished for Kakuzu-san to be happier."

Of course, Kakuzu still heard her, but it didn't bother him. Until Hidan started laughing, anyway. They continued on through the darkness, bickering and threatening each other.

And, somehow, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to Kinshin, because they belonged with her, and she with them.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Vocabulary for this chapter:  
>Ikayaki is grilled squid, and it's delicious.<br>Redi-bosu is a term I sort of made up using the Japanese versions of the words "lady" and "boss".  
>Muyōna means "useless."<br>Tanzaku is the little slip of paper that wishes are written on.  
><strong>

**Song is Going away by Meg & Dia**


	8. Rolling in the Deep

**Chapter Seven**  
><em>"The scars of your love remind me of us<br>They keep me thinking that we almost had it all  
>The scars of your love, they leave me breathless<br>I can't help feeling  
>We could have had it all<br>Rolling in the deep."_

"Keep your elbows closer to your body. That's the weakest-looking block I've ever seen!"

Kinshin resisted the urge to wipe the sweat from her forehead and did as Hidan instructed her. They'd been training for hours, and while she was happy to finally be learning _kenjutsu_, she didn't expect it to be so hard.

"Come on, stupid bitch! You keep your weight on your front leg, and an enemy will catch you off-balance, and then I'm just gonna laugh at you when he cuts your guts out."

But she also didn't expect Hidan to be such a harsh taskmaster. She grit her teeth and repeated her exercises, trying her best to listen to Hidan's critiques without letting them hurt her self-confidence. She swung her sword at her imaginary opponent, making clumsy slashes which Hidan was quick to criticize. For having only been learning for two days, though, she felt like she was doing pretty well; she could now sheathe and unsheathe her sword without hurting herself, something she hadn't even imagined would be a difficult task.

Kakuzu stood and began down the road. "That's enough. Let's get to the next village; I have business to look into there."

Kinshin panted as she put her katana away and hurried after him, Hidan bringing up the rear like he usually did. She was still exhausted from her training, but Kakuzu had already warned her that he'd be taking her sword back if it slowed her down, so she was careful to keep up and never complain no matter how long they had been walking.

* * *

><p>They had just entered through the southern border of Lightning Country, where the climate was cooler than the southern countries, and the terrain was much more mountainous. This was the home country of Kumogakure, or the Hidden Cloud village, and the shinobi of Kumo prided themselves on being able to handle the cold weather wearing less than most Suna ninja.<p>

Kinshin was less talented. She wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the cold, but it didn't make much difference. Despite her shivering, she kept quiet and followed Kakuzu obediently through the border village. At last, he entered a tavern, giving her a break from the cold wind. The smoky pub was full of shady figures, and Kinshin had flashbacks of Kenba and suddenly regretted following Kakuzu inside.

"What is this place?" she quietly asked, all but clinging to Kakuzu's arm. She didn't suppose touching Kakuzu would end well for her no matter how scared she was. His spooky green eyes landed on her briefly, and she was oddly comforted by them.

"This is the bounty-hunting center of business. It's the best place to get information."

Hidan scoffed, "Well, it fucking _reeks_ in here! We know where the Nibi is, so there's no reason to be here."

Kakuzu ignored him and chose a table, sliding into the booth and hailing the waitress. The woman was friendly enough, but didn't seem interested in giving away anything she had heard. Kakuzu practically threatened her, but she stood firm in her ways and asked if he intended to order anything. Kakuzu sent her away.

"That didn't go the way you planned, did it, Kakuzu-chan?"

"Shut up. I _will_ kill you."

Kinshin rested a cheek on her hand and looked around, tuning out their redundant argument. At the end of it, they both had to acknowledge that neither could ever really beat the other. Though one had to wonder if either of them _really_ wanted the other dead.

"I hear you boys are looking for a new bounty," said a woman as she slid into the booth next to Hidan, across from Kinshin. Her presence was one that demanded attention, even if it didn't need to, considering how she looked. She had sandy-blonde hair and dark brown eyes. Her outfit was admittedly impractical for travel, especially in the rocky environment, but it fit in such a way that any heterosexual man had to admit was very nice.

"What have you got?" Kakuzu asked her.

"A six-million ryo." Pulled out a sheet of paper and slid it across the table to him.

The picture that stared up at Kakuzu would have been frightening to anyone else. The man had a burn scar that ran down the left side of his face, and was missing an eye, presumably because of the burn. The image was sneering, revealing sharp, yellowed teeth.

"His name's Takumi and he's extremely dangerous. I've been tracking him for the last month, but I don't think I'll be able to take him down on my own." She took her paper back and refolded it, tucking it back into her tiny shirt. "Of course, we'd split the payout. How does sixty-forty sound?"

"What keeps me from killing you and taking it all?"

"Nothing really," she said, shrugging. "But I do happen to know exactly where he is right now, which would save you a lot of time if you chose to work with me."

"I want seventy-five percent," Kakuzu said. "There are three of us, after all. The payout should be split four ways."

The woman looked at Kinshin, "I'm not sure she really counts. We'll split it three ways, and you can have sixty-six percent. Deal?"

"Seventy percent."

"Fine, fine. You can have seventy percent, I'll take the other thirty." She shot a sultry smile at him, "I'm Michi, by the way."

"I'm Kinshin," she answered excitedly. "This is Kakuzu-san and Hidan-san. It will be great to have another girl around."

Michi ignored the younger girl and went on speaking to Kakuzu. They discussed bounties, and bragged back and forth about their biggest hauls. Kinshin frowned, and when she caught Hidan's gaze, he only shrugged and went back staring apathetically out the window.

* * *

><p>"I did do some studying on the subject a few years ago."<p>

Hidan looked at Michi expectantly. "Jashinism needs more than studying."

"That's what I thought," she said, "But I'm really far too unworthy of Jashin-sama to take the title of one of his followers. To be sacrificed to him would be an honor for anyone, though."

Kinshin resisted rolling her eyes. They had been hiking the narrow trail for hours, and Michi hadn't shut up for one second since they started. She was a bounty hunter, and she knew where the best places for saving money were, and now she was a pseudo-Jashinist, too? It was like she was some sort of doll, created for the express purpose of being perfect for the Akatsuki duo she was currently traveling with.

At least she wasn't some super-strong warrior, who could take down several enemies at one time. It might have been the last piece to completely enamoring the two men to her.

Just then, six men dropped from the trees, demanding all of their valuables. Hidan reached for his scythe and Kakuzu's right arm darkened with his jutsu, but Michi held a hand out.

"Don't waste your time with these nothings," she told the two. "I'll handle this." She produced two daggers from somewhere on her body (though, _where_ was anyone's guess in that skimpy outfit), and charged at the bandits. Within minutes, all six were sprawled out over the ground, some in various pieces.

"See, Kinshin-chan," Hidan nudged the girl. "That's how you're supposed to do it."

Kinshin crossed her arms and looked away. This new female companionship was not the way she had anticipated it would be. Kinshin ignored the other three as they continued up the trail, watching the leaves to distract herself from thinking about it.

* * *

><p>Kinshin wandered through the village alone, the weight of her sword heavier than usual as she hunched in depression. Hidan was too busy sparring with Michi to help her practice with her katana. It wasn't that Kinshin expected him to focus all of his attention on her, but she'd have liked a little. Neither Hidan nor Kakuzu had uttered more than three sentences to Kinshin since Michi had joined them.<p>

She paused as she heard shouting not far off. Curiously, she followed the noise, and it led her to a dojo, where several teenage boys were assembled in lines, practicing kendo. Their instructor shouted a stance, and they all called it back to him in unison, shifting into the stance. Kinshin hid and watched in fascination, committing each movement to her memory.

She practiced all she had memorized on her own in a wooded area on the edge of the village. Even after it was dark and she was tired, she continued to push herself. If Michi was the sort of person Hidan and Kakuzu wanted around, she'd need to become more like Michi, Kinshin decided. And she'd start with her fighting.

* * *

><p>It was midday when Michi announced that they were almost there. They neared a part of the hill where a deep crevice had been cut into it to allow the path to go through. It was a narrow, twenty-foot stretch, with rocky cliff face on both sides of the path.<p>

"Careful," Michi warned, "This pass is prone to rockslides."

They continued on through the pass carefully, none of them noticing when Michi started to trail behind a bit. When they were nearly half-way through the pass, Michi tugged a wire hidden on the rock wall. The ground shook as loud rumbling echoed down the cliff, and Kakuzu, Hidan and Kinshin were showered with small rocks.

The falling rocks quickly got bigger, and as a boulder fell toward them, the two missing-nin jumped forward to avoid being crushed, one of them shoving Kinshin back to save her. The only problem, when the stones settled and the dust cleared, was the wall of rubble that separated the men from the women.

"Hidan-san? Kakuzu-san? Are you okay?" Kinshin yelled at the wall.

"Fine," Hidan's voice called back. "We'll get you, just wait a minute."

Michi frowned and stepped forward, "Don't worry about us. I know another way around, it just takes a little longer. Go on ahead."

"You're sure?"

Michi smiled at Kinshin and answered Hidan, "We'll catch up."

Michi led Kinshin back the way they had come a bit, and then took her down a path that veered off to the right. It was a steep uphill climb that only evened out when they finally reached the summit nearly an hour later. Kinshin collapsed onto the grass, groaning as her leg muscles screamed at her.

"How much farther?" Kinshin asked Michi, rubbing her sore calves.

"Not much…"

A flash caught the edge of Kinshin's vision, and she jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being skewered by Michi's dagger. The blade sunk into the grass where Kinshin had been sitting, as the brunette landed in a crouched position, hand instinctively on the hilt of her sword.

"Why are you attacking me?" Kinshin demanded, drawing her sword and blocking Michi's next lunge.

"You're in the way," Michi answered, bringing her other dagger into the mix. Sparks flew when their blades met. "I can't properly distract the targets with you around."

"Targets?" Kinshin swung her sword down, and Michi caught it between her daggers. The two struggled against each other, determined to be stronger than the other.

"How dumb are you? Akatsuki, duh!" She spun away, letting Kinshin's momentum throw her off balance. Michi went to stab Kinshin in the back while the girl was on the ground, but Kinshin managed to roll away with a small cut on her left arm.

"That landslide was supposed to kill them," Michi muttered, more to herself. "I just hope Takumi has better luck than I did."

Kinshin hissed as Michi's dagger grazed her cheek, and she jumped back to put a little distance between them. "Takumi? You were working with him all along?"

"Good lord, you're stupid!" Michi shouted, exasperated. "Yes, I was doing with Takumi what I was pretending to do with Kakuzu!" She ran at Kinshin, but this time Kinshin didn't bother to block.

Kinshin moved her body to trade a fatal stab in the chest for a stab in the shoulder, and didn't let the pain slow her down. She surprised Michi by continuing through the attack and attempting to decapitate her. Mich was able to dodge it, but still ended up with the side of her neck cut.

Kinshin held the back of her right hand against her bleeding shoulder, but did not drop her sword. Her left arm was limp at her side, but Michi, aside from a few minor cuts and bruises, was fine. Kinshin was becoming painfully aware of how outmatched she was.

"The sooner I can kill you, the sooner I can assist Takumi," Michi said, preparing to finish the battle.

Kinshin felt her stomach knot. If she let Michi continue on, she'd hurt Kakuzu and Hidan, and Kinshin wasn't about to let that happen. Even if it cost her life, Kinshin would not let Michi lay a hand on either of them.

Michi raised an eyebrow as Kinshin changed her stance, pointing the end of her katana at Michi's chest threateningly. With a smirk, the blonde lept at Kinshin, ducking to slip under Kinshin's sword, and slicing up Kinshin's torso, making a gash from the girl's bellybutton to her collarbone.

Kinshin bit her lip until it bled to keep from crying out in pain, and flipped her sword around, stabbing the point in through Michi's back, and straight into Kinshin's own chest, pinning the two women together. Michi's eyes widened in a combination of surprise and pain, and she struggled to get away, but Kinshin's katana was lodged too deep to escape from.

"You're not leaving this spot," rasped Kinshin. She tasted blood in her mouth, but smiled despite it.

Michi stared at Kinshin in disbelief. "You intended to let me kill you, so you could latch your dead weight onto me? That's the stupidest thing I've ever—"

"Not quite." Kinshin let go of the hilt of her sword and brought her hand around, grabbing Michi's dagger and yanking it away from the woman. She drew it back and slammed the point into Michi's neck. Michi spat blood onto Kinshin's shoulder, and the two sunk to their knees together, no longer collectively strong enough to stand.

"Why would you do this for those criminals? Those _murderers_?"

"Because I tend to get attached to my things," Kinshin whispered into Michi's ear, too weak to speak any louder, but appreciating the dramatic effect, too. "And I don't like people trying to take them from me."

Kinshin wasn't sure exactly when she finally blacked out. It all just sort of hurt so much that she eventually felt numb. She briefly wondered, just before the darkness drew her into its peaceful arms, if Hidan really would laugh at her about all of this.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Short chapter, I know.**

**I've finally caught up. FF wasn't taking new fiction for a few days, so I was seven chapters behind deviantArt. But I didn't want to upload these too frequently, to avoid flooding my watchers' inboxes.**

**Song is Rolling in the Deep by Adelle.  
><strong>


	9. All Around Me

**Chapter Eight**_  
>"I can feel you all around me<br>Thickening the air I'm breathing  
>Holding onto what I'm feeling<br>Savoring this heart that's healing."_

Kinshin could smell flowers and hear a rhythmic scraping sound. She could still taste the rusty flavor of blood, mixed with that taste you get in your mouth when you first wake up, and you just _know_ that your breath could peel paint. She couldn't feel much, and her eyelids seemed too heavy to will them open. All in all, she figured she probably wasn't nearly as dead as she expected she would be.

She tried to speak, but her mouth wasn't complying, and she quickly gave up. She didn't realize she had fallen asleep until she was suddenly aware of smells and sounds again. The scraping had stopped, and the flower smell had been replaced by food. Her stomach grumbled, and she was glad that some part of her body was at least making noise.

"I see you've awoken," said a soft, weathered voice.

Kinshin tried again to speak, but could only manage to twitch her mouth into a slight smile. The woman took this as her answer and went on.

"I didn't believe you'd live," she admitted, sitting beside the mat where Kinshin rested. "In all my years, I've never seen someone lose so much blood and live. You must have something keeping your will to survive strong."

Kinshin instantly thought of Kakuzu and Hidan and the wish she had made. Of course she had something to live for; she hadn't even come close to seeing forever with them.

As if reading Kinshin's mind, the old woman said, "Your companions asked me to pass a message to you. They say that they'll return when they've finished their mission. And the other one added that you'd better be well enough to travel by the time they returned."

Kinshin couldn't pin which had probably said what, especially with the woman's deadpan voice. It could have gone either way, really.

"I am Shiori, the healer of this village. And you are Kinshin, I was told."

Kinshin really did manage to smile this time. Hidan had probably done that. Without realizing it, she began to cry, not sure why she was. She was just so happy, and sad, and tired, and in pain that her body didn't know how to react.

"Sorry,"Kinshin managed to mumble as she felt a hand gently wipe the tears away.

"Don't be. Tears and blood are the most common things in this room, and honestly, I prefer it be tears to blood. Now drink up, this will help you regain your strength."

* * *

><p>It took a few days, but Kinshin was finally able to get out of bed. She was too weak to walk, and otherwise had stitches in both her shoulder, and her stomach and chest to be careful of, so she was confined to Shiori's house.<p>

On the third day of sitting across the table from Shiori while she mixed herbs, Kinshin sighed restlessly and leaned against the table, only to jump away and rub the stitches in her abdomen that she had irritated. She wondered if Kakuzu's stitching hurt him as much as hers hurt her, but realized that this was a silly notion and sighed again.

"Isn't there _anything_ I can do, Shiori-baachan?"

Shiori paused and set her mortar and pestle aside. She had several small, clear bottles, each housing a different herb, lined up along the table, and she slid them into a line between herself and Kinshin. Taking the first bottle, she popped the cork out and handed it to the girl. "This is rosemary," she said. "It can be made into a tea and increases brain activity. It should not be used on those with an iron deficiency or the anemic."

Kinshin sniffed it and handed it back to Shiori, who gave her a different bottle and explained what was inside, how it could be used, and when not to use it. After she had explained all ten bottles, she quizzed Kinshin on them.

Kinshin didn't do well the first time through, but nearly had them all after Shiori explained them again.

* * *

><p>"This one."<p>

"Pokeweed. Toxic unless handled by a professional, then can be used to treat tonsillitis."

"Very good. That's enough for today. We'll review tomorrow." Shiori but her herbs away and went to the cupboard to prepare dinner.

"Shiori-baachan," Kinshin said, "Do you know what something called a 'nibi' might be?"

Shiori tensed minutely, but shook her head. "No. Why do you ask?"

"That's where they were going. I just wondered if you thought they might be in danger."

Shiori didn't have to ask who 'they' were. Kinshin spoke of no one else, unless Shiori could keep her mind occupied elsewhere. "I don't know much about them," Shiori admitted, "But if I had to guess, I'd suppose that every aspect of their lives is dangerous."

Kinshin studied the grain of the wood on the table, absently tracing her finger over the lines. "I guess that's true. I just wish I knew how they were doing."

"You shouldn't worry about them. Focus on healing before worrying about the wellbeing of two men who can more than handle themselves."

Kinshin nodded, "Yes, Shiori-baachan." Kinshin stood from the table, "I'm going to put my ointment on, okay?"

Shiori watched the girl go into the other room out of the corner of her eye. There was something unsettling about how attached Kinshin was to the two men. Shiori had decided long ago not to interfere in the affairs of shinobi, but she knew what the Akatsuki was, and she knew what being one of them entailed. It worried her that such a young woman would be so willing to forsake her own wellness for men like them. But Shiori was also wise enough not to judge things by appearance. Perhaps there was something that Kinshin could see, that nobody else could.

* * *

><p>"It's really quiet without her around," Hidan said.<p>

Kakuzu didn't spare him a glance. "Not as quiet as it could be."

"Come on, you really don't miss her at all?"

"She's probably dead," Kakuzu pointed out. "Regardless, get used to not having her around."

"So you really are going to leave her there?"

"It's too dangerous with us. We've always known that there are hunter-nin after us." Kakuzu thought of the Kumo hunter-nin that had nearly gotten Kinshin killed, "We shouldn't have needed two of them to come after us to realize that there won't always be one of us around to protect her."

Hidan was quiet. "We should at least go back to see if she survived," he said at last. "To say goodbye. You know she'd be mad if we didn't."

"We're getting close to the two-tailed jinchuuriki. We'll talk about this later."

Hidan sighed and stretched his tense neck. "Fine. Let's just get this over with."

* * *

><p>When Shiori returned from the market, her house had been cleaned from top to bottom. Ever since Kinshin had gotten well enough to move around more, she had been more restless than ever. She cleaned things that didn't need cleaning and organized shelves that were already organized. Shiori was even running out of herbs to teach the girl about. Kinshin absorbed information like a dry sponge did water.<p>

"Good morning, Shiori-baachan!"

Shiori closed her eyes, "Kinshin, what have I told you about rearranging the bookshelf?"

"Sorry. But I actually managed to alphabetize this time, not just arrange them by color."

Shiori smiled gently, "Well, that is something. I actually have a surprise for you."

"Really?" Kinshin bounded toward the healer, "What is it?"

Shiori put her shopping bags down and led Kinshin to the bookshelf, pulling one from a shelf near the bottom. "This is a book on acupuncture," she told Kinshin, opening the book to the first page, where a black and white diagram of a person was marked with dots all over its outlined body. Each dot had a line running between it and a set of words.

"But I can't read, Shiori-baachan," Kinshin reminded the woman.

"Then how did you arrange the herbs?"

"By smell."

Shiori looked to the cabinet in which the herbs were housed in astonishment. "You have some very impressive traits, Kinshin," she said. "But if you can memorize more than a hundred herbs by smell, you can memorize the _tenketsu_.

"There are 361 tenketsu, and mistreatment of any of these points can result in paralysis or organ injury."

Kinshin perked up, "So that makes it a fighting technique, right?"

"We'll get to that. You must learn the yang before the yin." Shiori told the girl, gesturing for her to calm down. "The power to heal must be mastered before the power to harm. Though both are important to learn." Kinshin listened intently as Shiori educated her in the ways of acupuncture, telling her the many names and locations of the chakra points, and even demonstrating the use of the needles in Kinshin's arm.

* * *

><p>Another week passed, and Kinshin was finally able to have her stitches removed. In that time, she had also become proficient in the most common acupuncture treatments for certain pains and nausea, and Shiori had begun teaching her the yin of acupuncture. Well-versed in the theory of combat acupuncture, it was time to work on aiming projectiles.<p>

Shiori sat on the back deck, supervising Kinshin's practice, which wasn't going well. Kinshin still hadn't managed to get the point of a senbon to stick anything, much less the target. The broad sides bounced off nearby trees and rocks with metallic _plinks_.

Kinshin groaned, "I'm _never_ going to get this."

Shiori sipped her tea, "Keep practicing. You'll get no dinner until you've hit the target."

Kinshin pouted, but focused back on her task. She closed her eyes and thought about when Hidan had helped her skewer that fish, when Kakuzu had taught her to use a tanto, when she had first started her sword lessons. Those had been difficult, too, but she had managed it. This was a bit different, but she could handle it, she knew she could.

Taking a deep breath, she looked determinedly at the target and launched her last senbon at it. The side bounced off the foamy surface, and the needle landed in the tall grass.

"Ugh! This is impossible!" Kinshin stomped across the yard to recollect her needles and took them back to where she had been standing.

Shiori set her tea to the side and stood, approaching the frustrated girl. Silently, she took one of Kinshin's senbon and propelled it at the target. One pointed end embedded itself into the bull's-eye, but Shiori had already turned away and gone into the house, not bothering to stay and see how her throw had done.

* * *

><p>Kinshin ate dinner with Shiori. Ouside, all ten of her senbon stuck out of different areas of the target. Another few days of practice, and she was confident she could get them all into the red circle in the center. Kinshin stuffed a piece of bread into her mouth and looked across the table at Shiori. The old woman had been more quiet than usual since the senbon practice had started up.<p>

Kinshin wanted to ask what was wrong, but knew that posing the question like that would not get a straightforward answer. Instead, she asked, "Where did you learn all of this stuff?"

Shiori stopped eating and slowly raised her dark eyes to meet Kinshin's inquisitive blue ones. "I was once a shinobi of Kumogakure."

"No way! Really? Did you leave it like Hidan and Kakuzu did?"

"Not exactly," Shiori murmured, not particularly interested in explaining the politics of a ninja village. "I served in the Third Shinobi War, and retired afterward."

"Shinobi War?"

"Around the time you were born, I would guess. It was the war that took my husband, son, and daughter-in-law as well as the unborn child she carried." Shiori recalled. Her expression grew sad and distant, "I vowed not to harm anyone ever again after that war. So I came to this village and put my medic skills to use, learning to use my combat techniques in ways that could help people."

Kinshin felt sorry for Shiori, even if she couldn't relate to the feeling of losing loved ones. She also wondered if perhaps her parents had died during that war as either civilian casualties or fighting shinobi. It was certainly a possibility.

"You must promise me something if you are going to continue learning from me, Kinshin."

Kinshin nodded. "Anything, Shiori-baachan," she said, wholeheartedly meaning it.

"Too many men and women have been corrupted by power, and I think you have great potential to become powerful. But I need you to promise that you won't use that power to hurt those who are weaker than you. If you must fight, fight for peace. And always stand up for what you know is right, even if no one else will stand with you."

"I will, I promise."

* * *

><p>Kinshin had fallen into a routine with Shiori. Every morning, she'd wake up and wash herself, brush her hair and tie it up (as it had grown past her shoulders since Kakuzu had cut it), and meet Shiori in the kitchen for breakfast. Then there would be an hour of lessons about poisons or the tenketsu or whatever else Shiori decided Kinshin should know, and after that, Kinshin would go outside and do her sword training or target practice. After some hours of that, Shiori would call her inside for lunch, and then they'd tidy the small house some before dinner.<p>

Every now and then, a villager would come with a cut or a rash, and Kinshin would observe and assist Shiori in healing the villager. Kinshin learned a lot from Shiori, and slowly came to think of Hidan and Kakuzu less and less, feeling bad about this fact every time they did come to mind.

After three weeks since she awakened on Shiori's patient bed, she had started to believe they weren't coming back for her. It wasn't hard to imagine that they had left her there. Kakuzu had said he would if she slowed them down, and getting sliced open wasn't particularly conductive to keeping up.

* * *

><p>On Kinshin's twenty-fourth day in the village with Shiori, while the two women ate lunch, there was a knock on the door. Anticipating a patient, Kinshin cleared the table while Shiori went to the door. Kinshin then hurried into the examining room to prepare the things Shiori would need, and when she had finished, she waited. When neither patient, nor Shiori came after a few minutes, Kinshin crept down the hall to see what was going on.<p>

"She wasn't any trouble," Shiori was telling the visitor. "In fact, her recovery went very well, and she was quite helpful."

Kinshin didn't need to see who was there when she head a rumbling voice ask, "How much will it be?" She abandoned her slow pace and took off down the hall, sliding to a stop in the kitchen. She could hardly believe her eyes.

Shiori waved a hand at Kakuzu, "She paid in labor already." She looked kindly at the girl in the doorway, "Come in and make our guests some tea."

"Yes, Shiori-baachan," Kinshin murmured, struggling not to bear hug either of the men as she walked by and went to the stove, where she but the kettle on to boil. It was so surreal seeing them again after so long. She had so much she wanted to ask them about what had happened the night they were separated, and their mission to capture the jinchuuriki (whatever that was).

"Hey," barked Hidan indignantly, "Don't pretend you didn't miss me."

Kinshin looked at him over her shoulder, and couldn't stop a happy tear that slipped down her cheek, followed by another and then more still. She crossed the room quickly, and, disregarding her health, threw her arms around Hidan's waist, embracing him with all the strength her small frame could muster.

"Please don't leave me," she sobbed into his chest. "I promise I won't slow you down ever again."

Hidan sighed, "Fine, just get the hell off of me."

She complied and stepped away, rubbing the heel of her palm into her eyes, and feeling embarrassed about her outburst. She was glad when the kettle screeched and she had a reason turn away.

* * *

><p>It drizzled as Shiori walked the trio to the edge of the village the next morning. She hugged Kinshin goodbye, slipping two mismatched hairpins into the girl's stubby ponytail and telling Kinshin to remember what she had taught her.<p>

Kinshin waved at Shiori until they were too far from the village to see her. Walking once again between Kakuzu and Hidan, she could almost convince herself that the last month had been a dream. That Michi had never existed, and everything that had happened because of her, hadn't happened. Except Shiori would stick in Kinshin's mind forever as the closest thing to a mother she had ever had, and that was worth all the trouble Michi had caused.

Then Hidan and Kakuzu were bickering about side trips and bounties and rituals, and Kinshin was biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing when Kakuzu got mad and Hidan was calling, "Kakuzu-chan," after him. And everything was right in their worlds, even if only for a little while.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Vocabulary:  
>Baachan mean "granny" or "grandma." It's a more informal variation of "obaachan."<br>Senbon are those long needles with points on both ends. Genma always has one in his mouth. Haku used them in episode nine to fake Zabuza's death.  
>Tenketsu are chakra points, utilized by the Hyuuga clan.<strong>

**This chapter refused to be written. You can tell by how it doesn't flow very well.**

**Oh, and I want to thank AuburnCollision for writing one of the best reviews I think I've ever gotten. It sort of inspired me to finish this chapter, even when I was stuck towards the end.**

**Song is All Around Me by Flyleaf.  
><strong>


	10. Stand in the Rain

**Chapter Nine  
><strong>_"So stand in the rain  
>Stand your ground<br>Stand up when it's all crashing down  
>You stand through the pain<br>You won't drown  
>And one day, what's lost can be found<br>You stand in the rain."_

Their route into Fire Country was different from the one they'd taken into Lightning Country. None of them acknowledged it, but there was a mutual, subconscious desire not to have to pass through any of the places where Michi had been with them the first time through.

"What a waste of time," Hidan muttered, seemingly from nowhere, but his companions knew what he was talking about.

"She said she was working with the bounty," Kinshin told them.

"Wasn't even a real bounty," Hidan scoffed. "It was just a trap."

Kinshin considered her next sentence, unsure of whether she should ask or not. "Did you guys really like her?" she mumbled, afraid of the answer, but not sure why.

Kakuzu was the first to answer, surprising Kinshin. "Even if she hadn't been trying to kill us, I couldn't trust her," he said. "She was too much like me, and I wouldn't trust myself."

"Her game was to impress us, and she played it well," Hidan admitted sheepishly. "It's fucking hard to find someone who really is the person she was pretending to be. I forgot that not everyone is as easy to read as you, Kinshin."

She blushed. It wasn't much of a compliment, but she could accept it as one. After all, both Kakuzu and Hidan had, in roundabout ways, sort of said that they trusted her. Kind of.

* * *

><p>The southern border of Hot Spring Country and the northern border of Fire Country were separated by a wide river, and the only way to cross it was by ferry. Unfortunately, upon reaching the dock where tickets for the ferry were sold, they were told that the ferry was out of order, and would not be fixed for three days.<p>

There were few shinobi with enough stamina to maintain the chakra control necessary to cross the expansive river on foot, and that was out of the question regardless, with Kinshin with them.

"Aw, fuck!" Hidan shouted as they made their way to the closest village to look for lodging. "I'm seriously sick of all this sitting around with our heads up our asses we have to do."

Neither Kakuzu nor Kinshin said anything, but there was definitely an air of silent agreement. The three went east for a mile before they came to a village. It was rundown, and looked nearly uninhabitable, but there were definitely people living there. The battered shacks that housed the impoverished villagers lined the cracked roadways, and all of it circled around a large castle, which seemed to be the only thing that received regular upkeep.

As the trio walked the main street, they came upon a crowd of people, all looking at something and murmuring amongst themselves. From beyond the wall of people, a voice could be heard, and Kinshin wasted no time pushing through to get a closer look.

"Please! Just give me a little more time, Tachibana-sama!" begged a man, on his hands and knees and bowing so low that his forehead touched the ground.

"If you don't have the money, you'll pay with something else," said the man in the _kago,_ presumably named Tachibana. "Arrest him!"

"But my family!" the man on the ground protested. "They'll starve if I'm not able to work!"

Tachibana didn't seem to care, as he tapped his cane on the floor, and two servants hurried to lift the litter and carry him off, leaving two ninja behind to handle the groveling man. The ninja wore the same insignia on their headbands as Hidan's, Kinshin noticed, and she made a mental note to ask Hidan about it later. For now, she couldn't just let the man be hauled off and leave his family to die. She reached for her sword, but was stopped by Hidan's hand in her hair, dragging her away from the scene painfully.

"Ow," she complained as he tugged her along to catch up with Kakuzu, who had apparently gotten bored and moved on. "Come on, Hidan-san, let go." When he did, she finger combed her hair back into tidiness (not that it was tidy to begin with), and readjusted her ponytail and hairpins.

"What was going on back there?" she asked.

"Who cares? Why were you getting involved?"

Kinshin looked indignant, "Nobody else was going to help that man, and now he's arrested and his family is—"

"Didn't you see his bodyguards? Those were shinobi."

"You two are shinobi!"

Hidan glared at her, "But _you're_ not. You wouldn't have stood a chance against them."

"I could have at least tried."

"Kinshin," Kakuzu's voice cut in, silencing the girl. "That's enough. Don't meddle."

Kinshin drew her eyebrows together and looked at the pavement. Arguing with Kakuzu was more difficult than arguing with Hidan. He was just more authoritative.

After almost an hour of wandering, they still hadn't found an inn. Or, at least not one that was open. Most of the business in the village seemed to have been closed down, and all of them had been looted for whatever might have been left inside. A lot of the homes were empty, too, and had also been ransacked for anything of value.

They settled on staying in one of them empty houses. It was dusty and the windows had been broken out, but there were four walls and a roof, which was still better than some of the places they had slept. And since the summer was quickly giving way to fall, which meant rain, they were willing to take anything that would keep them dry.

"There's no food in here," Kinshin noted disappointedly. She hadn't really expected there to be, but she had still hoped.

Hidan poked at a tattered blanket in the corner, trying to decide if he was brave enough to use it. "Then go look for some," he suggested harshly over his shoulder.

She stuck her tongue out at him after he turned away again, and made her way for the door, pausing in front of Kakuzu, who sat beside the doorframe. "Should I bring something back for you?"

He shook his head, and she shrugged, continuing on out of the shack. He looked across the room at his partner, "We need to leave her."

"You've been saying you were going to leave her behind for weeks," Hidan muttered, lazing on the floor after having decided that no, he was not brave enough to use the old blanket. "Not in this shithole."

Kakuzu nodded slightly. "We'll find somewhere in Fire Country."

"We need to tell her before we abandon her," Hidan declared. "You know she'll just follow us, otherwise."

"Hn."

* * *

><p>Kinshin was mostly out for a walk. Sure, she was hungry, but everyone she saw looked just as hungry, and she couldn't bring herself to ask them for food. So she simply explored the village. In was remarkable how, despite the conditions the people were living in, everyone looked so full of hope. Kinshin could admire that.<p>

She went on, watching children play with sticks and rocks and whatever else they could find, and women gossip, until she came to a woman being harassed by three men. The men were not ninja, but they wore Tachibana's crest on their armor, so they must have been guards of some sort. Any bystanders tried to make themselves scarce as the patrolmen went on tormenting the woman.

"Please leave me alone," whispered the distressed woman.

"Don't you know the rules?" asked one of the patrolmen. "As Tachibana-sama's guard, we get what we want when we want it."

The woman tried to run away, but one of the men caught her, and pulled her back. The men were clearly angered by her attempt to escape them, and they grew rougher with the woman. Now, anyone who was watching was quickly leaving, none too fond of seeing whatever might transpire.

Kinshin clenched a fist. Her first instinct was to follow the other villagers away from the area, especially after Kakuzu forbade her from getting involved. She would have, if not for two things: the first being her certainty that there would be no noble hero to help this woman. Before meeting Hidan and Kakuzu, she'd have believed that there was probably someone just around the corner, on his way to stop whatever bad things might be happening in the world. Now she knew that if she didn't do something, no one would.

The second thing that made her stay was her promise to Shiori. Kinshin wasn't about to tackle the philosophy of what was right and what was wrong, but she knew that what was happening in front of her was most certainly not _right_. She had to protect the weak, even if it meant facing an opponent stronger than her. She had heard the term _nindou_ before, and that was hers.

Resolve hardened, she approached the patrolmen calmly. She attempt to do things non-violently. Shiori had told her once that only the simpleminded used force when it was not a last resort. "Excuse me," she said, bowing politely. "I thought I heard this nice lady ask you to leave her alone. She even said please."

The men turned to regard Kinshin, disbelief written across their faces. "Run along, little girl," said one. "This isn't your business."

Kinshin looked between them and the woman, and then she nodded. "I know. I don't know any of you, or her, or even what the name of this village is," Kinshin admitted. "But since it would be the job of someone who _did_ know all those things to stop you, and that someone isn't here to do his job, I'll just have to do my best."

"Why, you little…"

The guard abruptly stopped speaking, and at the same moment, a hand landed gently on Kinshin's shoulder and the girl turned, hoping to see Hidan or Kakuzu there to help her. It was neither of them. Instead, there stood a man wearing a plain kimono under simple _hakama_, with the front half of his dark hair pulled into a topknot and the rest falling down to his shoulder blades. Her wore a single _sode_ on his right shoulder, and a katana at his hip.

"You are most right, Milady," he whispered kindly near Kinshin's ear before stepping around her. "So sorry I'm late." He turned to the woman, "Suki-san, you should head home."

She beamed at him, "Thank you, Naoki-san!" And with that, she hurried away from the area.

Naoki turned his attention back to the patrolmen. "Oh," he said, grinning. "Are you still here?"

"Naoki," the leader if the little pack snarled. "You had better watch out. And you might want to keep an eye on that little bitch," a finger was thrust in Kinshin's direction. "Tachibana-sama will probably be very interested in her." The patrolmen turned briskly and walked away, heading in the direction of the mansion. When they were out of view, Naoki relaxed and looked toward Kinshin.

"Well," he said. "I don't know if you're brave or stupid."

"Stupid," Kinshin answered. "Lots of people say so."

His lip twitched up, "You have a very candid way of speaking. But I have to say, there's something to a girl who would stand up to such scary men."

Kinshin thought of her companions. "I've met scarier."

He actually laughed that time. "I actually don't doubt it. You look like the type to get into a lot of trouble." Naoki paused, "In fact, you might have just gotten yourself into trouble. Tachibana will probably want to make an example of you."

"Example?"

"To show his power. He doesn't want anything around here that might cause a revolt. Personally, I like you, so I will gladly be your bodyguard." He bowed to her, "May I have Milady's name?"

"Uh, Kinshin." She stepped away from him, "But I really don't need a bodyguard. I'm with two ninja who are more than able to protect me. I'll just stay close to them."

Naoki seemed skeptical, but shrugged it off. "Very well, Kinshin-chama. At least let me walk you to your companions." He didn't leave her any room to say no, and they began the journey back the way Kinshin had come.

* * *

><p>Hidan rolled over and surveyed the hut. "That bitch still isn't back yet?"<p>

Kakuzu remained silent, which was fine, because Hidan hadn't been expecting an answer. With a sigh, the Jashinist stood and stretched.

"I'd better go look for her," he muttered. "Make sure she isn't dead." He stepped outside, and looked around, only to stop when he saw her coming. She had someone with her, Hidan noted, squinting at the man with disdain.

"Hidan-san," Kinshin smiled when she looked up and saw him standing there. "This is Naoki-san," she introduced the two men.

Naoki went to greet Hidan, but noted his glare and decided against it. "I'll leave you now, Kinshin-chama. Hidan-san looks capable of protecting you. Just be careful, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you," Kinshin replied. She waved at Naoki's retreating back before finally turning her attention back to Hidan. "This day has been so…" she trailed off, her smile dropping and her brows furrowing in concern. "Is something wrong, Hidan-san?"

"Inside. Now."

She pursed her lips and averted her eyes as she walked past him and over the threshold. He followed her inside, slamming the door behind him.

"Don't expect us to drag your new boyfriend along with us," Hidan snapped at her, and she whirled around.

"Naoki-san is not my boyfriend. He just helped me earlier, when some of Tachibana's guards were—"

Kakuzu snapped his creepy green gaze at the girl, "Were you not told to stay out of it?"

She pouted, "I was, but they were going to do something to this lady, and nobody was helping her. But then Naoki-san came, and the guards just left." She wrung her fingers, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, Kakuzu-san."

"If you disobey me again, you had better hope that your 'Naoki' comes to your rescue. Because I would sooner watch you die."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: To Be Continued...**

**Seriously. The reason this chapter took so long is because it's more than twice as long as what you see here, so I had to split it in half. **Where I cut them makes this chapter short, and the next one extra long, but this was the only appropriate place to segment them.** The other half should be up shortly. Another reason this chapter took so long is because I rewrote it three times. _Three times!_ That's insane.  
><strong>

**Vocabulary-  
>Kago: One of those wheel-less carriages that rich people sit in and servants carry around.<br>Nindou: "Ninja way." Most Naruto fans probably already know this one. It gets thrown around a lot throughout the series.  
>Hakama: The loose pants that samurai wear in most anime and period dramas.<br>Sode: Samurai shoulder armor.  
>-chama: It's a baby-talk form of sama (much like chan is to san). Naoki uses it in the same teasing tone as "milady."<strong>

**Song is Stand in the Rain by Superchick.  
><strong>


	11. Beautiful Disaster

**Chapter Ten**  
><em>"She would change everything for happy ever after<br>Caught in the in between of beautiful disaster  
>She just needs someone to take her home."<em>

Gray clouds rumbled overhead as Kinshin sat outside watching them the next morning. Kakuzu had refused to speak to her for the rest of the night, which admittedly wasn't _that_ unusual, but it still made her uneasy. She believed that he had meant what he said, and she didn't know what to think of it.

Hidan had acted oddly the night before, too, when she thought about it. Perhaps they were getting restless waiting for the ferry with no "proper sacrifices" or bounties in the immediate area. It was a possibility.

"No offense, but being deep in thought doesn't suit you," Naoki said, squatting next to where she sat. He grinned at her when she scowled.

"What are you doing here?"

"I thought of something last night. I have a feeling you could be the one who can solve this problem I have."

Kinshin was intrigued. She twisted her whole body to look at him more closely. "What is it?"

"Forgive my closeness," he murmured, then moved in and put his mouth beside her ear. "Tachibana has eyes and ears everywhere," he whispered. "One can never be too careful. You see, my problem is this: Tachibana has been systematically picking off members of the resistance, and the others are losing hope in our cause."

Kinshin blinked. "What does that have to do with me?"

"You're an outsider. Albeit, an unusually kind one, but if you're willing to fight for the freedom of people you don't know, at no gain of your own, it might boost their morale." He stood and brushed nonexistent dirt from his hakama, "Think about it, won't you?"

"I'll help you," Kinshin resolved, standing and following him. "But you have to do something for me."

He raised a brow, "And what might that be?"

She pointed to his sword, "Are you any good with that?"

"Of course."

She drew her katana with speed and accuracy and grinned at him. "Then don't go easy on me," and she attacked.

* * *

><p>Still sweaty and panting from their spar, Naoki and Kinshin walked through the market. Kinshin hadn't been able to beat Naoki—he was an experienced swordsman, after all—but she had held her own fairly well, which was all she had really wanted.<p>

"That was pretty impressive, Kinshin-chama," Naoki conceded.

"Hidan-san taught me. I'm sorry for the way he treated you yesterday, by the way."

Naoki smirked, "It's fine. It was actually reassuring, seeing that you really were in good hands. I'm just surprised your boyfriend was more protective than your father."

"Father? Kakuzu-san isn't my father."

"I know. I was just checking something."

She drew her mouth into a confused 'o'. "What?"

"You've yet to deny that Hidan-san is your boyfriend."

She bristled, "He's not—"

"Naoki-san!" a boy came running up to the two of them. He looked frantic. "A new bulletin was posted today," he said. "Tachibana-sama is offering a reward for anyone who turns in rebels. There's also a wanted poster for her." The boy held up the poster, and from it stared a crude drawing that might have resembled Kinshin in some other universe.

"He's not offering much for her, though," the boy added.

"He doesn't really want her turned in. He's just trying to scare her out of the village," Naoki said.

"What should we do?"

"Get word around that there will be a meeting tonight," Naoki told the boy, who quickly ran off. Naoki looked to Kinshin, "Will you join me?"

Kinshin nodded, and just then, the rain started to fall.

* * *

><p>It was late at night when Naoki left Kinshin at her shack and went home. She went inside as quietly as she could, but found both Hidan and Kakuzu were awake. She didn't look at either of them as she stripped off her wet clothes to hang them up to dry, and settled in front of the fire to warm herself. The scar that ran up her torso and the one in her shoulder throbbed with the cold.<p>

"You work fast," Hidan snarked.

She drew her knees to her chest and crossed her arms over them, rubbing her chilled, wet limbs. She wasn't sure what Hidan was talking about, but she had a feeling she was too cold and tired for whatever it was. "Do I?" she asked, uninterestedly. He had probably seen the wanted poster and was going to give her grief about it.

"How was he?" Hidan asked. "I'll bet he's a quick shot."

Her head snapped to his direction, "What?"

Hidan came over and sat behind her, and for the first time, she was self-conscious about being naked in front of the two men. "Where did he touch you?" he asked, putting a hand on the girl's bony hip. "Here?"

An involuntary shudder ran up her spine, but was quickly replaced by anger at what Hidan was saying to her. "He didn't!" she snapped, wiggling until his hand fell from her body. "I didn't have sex with him."

"I'll bet you didn't," Hidan hissed in her ear sarcastically.

"Knock it off," Kakuzu commanded his silver-haired partner. But whether it was for Kinshin's benefit or because he was sick of listening to Hidan was anyone's guess.

Hidan glared at Kakuzu, but stood, taking a second to throw his cloak over Kinshin's shoulders before retreating to his side of the room. "What have you been doing all day, then?" Hidan asked more casually.

"We sparred," she told them. "Naoki-kun is a skilled swordsman."

"So it's 'kun' now," muttered Kakuzu.

"We're friends," she defended. "What is it with you two?"

Hidan sneered, ignoring her. "You sparred _all _fucking _day_?"

"Tachibana wants me turned in," she admitted. "And he's offering a reward to anyone who turns in someone from the rebellion, too."

Hidan snorted, "Well, fuck him. He's not getting you." He grimaced when she smiled sweetly at him, "Don't let it go to your head. If you're gonna die, it'll be as a sacrifice for Jashin-sama, not for that son of a bitch's ego."

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, "Thank you, Hidan-san."

* * *

><p>When Kinshin awoke the next morning, wrapped in Hidan's cloak and enjoying both the softness of the material and the scent on it, Kakuzu wasn't there. Hidan told her Kakuzu hadn't been there when he had awoken, either.<p>

"I wonder where he went," Kinshin thought aloud as she dressed. "You think it was to get food?"

Hidan pulled his cloak on. "How should I know?" They left their shack, setting to the streets to find Kakuzu, but were stopped when the messenger boy from the day before ran up to them.

"Naoki-san is being arrested," he reported.

"Why?" Kinshin asked.

"He's being accused of leading a revolution against Tachibana-sama."

Kinshin followed the boy to the place where the villagers watched mutely as Naoki was dragged away by two ninja and five patrolmen. When the people saw her coming, they stepped aside, allowing her access to the front of the crowd. Naoki was just being pulled through the large gates when Kinshin finally saw him. She rushed forward, intending to free him, but was stopped suddenly and hauled back by a hand on her wrist.

"Kakuzu-san!" Kinshin stared at him. "Let me go, I have to help."

He towed her back to Hidan. "The ferry is fixed. Prepare to leave," he said to both Hidan and Kinshin.

"About time," Hidan muttered, following Kakuzu toward the village's exit.

Kinshin looked between the two men, then over her shoulder at the downtrodden faces of the villagers. Naoki was the only one keeping the patrolmen at bay, the only one giving the people hope, and to only one who Tachibana had promised to never arrest. Kinshin still didn't know why or how the understanding between Tachibana and Naoki had come about, but the people had been relying on Naoki's immunity, nonetheless.

"I can't," Kinshin whispered, halting, and making her companions look curiously at her. "I can't just leave these people alone like this."

"Tachibana only agreed to let you go if another rebel was turned in in your place," Kakuzu told her. "Leave now, or you can still be arrested."

"And that was the deal?" Kinshin asked him in disbelief. "There was no reward money involved?"

"That isn't the point."

"Even if there was no money, Naoki-kun was arrested because of me," Kinshin lamented. "If I hadn't gotten involved, Tachibana wouldn't have put that reward on me, and you wouldn't have made that deal." She turned away from them, facing the village. "I have to at least save Naoki-kun."

"Come with us now, or we leave you here with no money for the ferry."

"I understand, Kakuzu-san. I guess this is goodbye, then." Kinshin smiled at them sadly, then began running toward the village. She entered the market and looked around for anyone who she recognized from the meeting the night before. When she spotted one of the older men, she approached him.

"Yamada-san," she called to him. "Naoki-kun—"

"I heard about Naoki-dono," Yamada told her, stroking his beard.

"When are you planning on rescuing him?"

Yamada shook his head, "We aren't. Tachibana-sama has arrested his own brother. What chance do the rest of us have?"

"His brother? Tachibana and Naoki-kun are brothers?"

"Half-brothers. Naoki-dono was the illegitimate son of the previous Tachibana and his mistress. Tachibana-sama promised his father that he would take care of Naoki-dono, but you can see how that turned out." Yamada gave her a look, "I'm surprised Naoki-dono didn't tell you."

"So you're not going to do _anything_?"

"He's got six ninja and more than fifty guards," Yamada argued. "There isn't anything we _can_ do."

She frowned, "And everyone else feels that way, too?"

"I'm sorry, Kinshin-chan."

Kinshin clenched a fist, "I'm here to save Naoki-kun, and I'm not leaving until I do." She turned to face all of the people on the street. "You're all just going to give up and let Tachibana do whatever he wants?" she shouted, effectively getting their attentions. "Even if you don't care that Naoki-kun ran interference for so many of you, you should at least care that some of your husbands and sons are in there with him.

"I can understand being afraid. But you'll all die eventually anyway, if Tachibana stays in charge." She looked over all of their dirty faces, and each person she looked to averted his or her eyes. "No one will help? Not one person will take the risk to make everyone's lives better?" The silence was answer enough, and Kinshin slouched. Fine then, she decided, moving toward Tachibana's mansion. She would do this on her own.

Tachibana's gate loomed over her, higher than it looked from a distance. Getting it open would be impossible, and climbing it was out of the question. She really had no idea how she was going to do this; planning ahead wasn't her strong suit. Would it be stupid to just go knock on the gate and politely ask to be let in? Yes, it would, but it sounded like something Kinshin would do, so she decided to do it. Her fist had almost touched the wood when someone behind her spoke.

"That's probably not the best idea," said the voice, and when Kinshin turned, she saw Yamada, the messenger boy, and seven other men and women, who ranged in age from very young to very old.

"You came?"

Yamada sighed, "Naoki-dono would not let one person do this alone. And especially not someone like you."

Kinshin was too happy to be insulted. "Does anyone have a better way to get in?"

One of the older women spoke up, "I used to be a maid on the Tachibana estate many years ago. There is a small passage in the wall, which is used for emergency evacuations of the noble family in the event of an attack. We can enter through it, and then go into the castle through the kitchen."

"Great! Does anyone know where Naoki-kun would be inside?" Kinshin asked.

A young man came forward this time, "My father was a guard on the estate. I went with him to the dungeon all the time when I was a kid."

Kinshin beamed. It was no wonder this group of people was Naoki's selected team for the rebellion. "Okay. So you"—Kinshin pointed at the woman—"will lead us inside. Then a few of us will go with him"—she gestured to the man who had spoken—"to free Naoki-kun. Once we've done that, Naoki-kun is in charge."

"Who stays and fights, and who goes with Hirosuke-kun to the dungeon?" asked one of the others.

Yamada bowed his head, "The ones who hold off the guard and distract the ninja will probably die. I will stay, but I will not force any of you to volunteer for it."

"I'll stay behind," Kinshin said.

"There are ten of us," said another of the women. "Five should stay, and five should go, and we can't put all of our strongest on any one team."

"True," Yamada nodded. "Can we count on you as well, then, Kasumi-san?"

She nodded, "And that's three. We need two more to hold off the guards."

Two men, twins, exchanged a glance between each other and raised their hands simultaneously. "We'll stay, too."

"Good," Yamada nodded sagely. "The rest of you will go with Hirosuke."

"Understood," the remaining four said together. They all wore looks of shame, feeling cowardly for not volunteering to stay and fight.

Yamada gestured for the older woman to lead the way, and she took them around to a small door, hidden behind shrubbery in an area that was shaded by large trees. With the slightest amount of pressure, the panel popped inward, and a rectangular hole that was just barely big enough for a person to squeeze through opened up. The ten crawled through, the biggest members of their party struggling a little, and they went to the side door of the kitchen.

The older woman who had led them pulled a scarf from her sleeve and tied it around her mouth and nose, then pulled a capsule out of her pocket and went inside, activating her smoke bomb. There was a lot of noise and coughing from inside, bit it silenced quickly, and the door was opened once more to allow the rebels through. They held their breaths as they moved through the kitchen and came out in the servants' hallway.

"The dungeon is downstairs," Hirosuke whispered to the group, and a collective nod followed as they split up into their predetermined groups.

Yamada led them through the halls, pausing beside a door and taking a deep breath. "This is it. Through this door is the courtyard. We'll be able to lure all of the guards to us if we cause enough trouble." He didn't give them another minute before bursting through the door, whipping out his _naginata_ and howling a battle cry.

Kinshin and the others followed him into the courtyard, which only had a handful of guards to start, but quickly filled as the alarms were sounded. Her stomach tightened nervously as she drew her sword, watching wave after wave of armored men enter through various doors. She couldn't bring herself to attack first, so she waited for Tachibana's men to came at her, and set to defending herself.

She fought better than she had against Michi, she noted with some level of triumph, and sent a silent thanks to Shiori for it. But, in the end, she was still a novice, and a severely outnumbered novice at that. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the twins fall, an arrow between his third and fourth vertebrae, if she recalled correctly. She quickly shook her head and focused on the soldiers attacking her, slicing one's peroneus longus before darting around him to the next.

This one managed to cut her side, but she ignored the searing pain and twisted her blade, slitting the man's right wrist, before swinging her foot into his side and knocking him away. Her next opponent was one of the shinobi. He came at her, his hands a blur in the chakra releasing seals that Shiori had once mentioned. Kinshin didn't have much time to think about this before her body was hit with an electric jolt that made her mind go completely blank.

She landed flat on her back, and the ninja stalked closer to her, leaning over her prone form. He had a blade in his hand, and Kinshin couldn't make her body do much more than squint at it. Was this what she had left Hidan and Kakuzu for? To get killed? And what if rescuing Naoki didn't work out, and the rest of the team was killed? Then everyone would be dead, and Tachibana would exploit the people until they were all dead, too. Was this what she had felt was important enough to let the only people she had ever really cared about walk away from her?

She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, waiting for the kunai to pierce her skull.

* * *

><p>"So damn stupid," muttered Hidan to himself. "Gonna go get herself killed. Stupid bitch."<p>

The river had just come into view, and the two Akatsuki members were just in time for the first ferry ride of the day. Hidan continued grouching under his breath the whole way there, and he hadn't stopped since Kinshin had decided to go back to the village.

"This has to happen," Hidan stated. "She got it in her head that we'd be there to bail her ass out of trouble every time. It'll do her good to work out her own problems."

Kakuzu halted suddenly, "She won't learn anything if she's dead."

"Serves her right," Hidan retorted, but they both knew he was just putting on a front. Irritated at how unconvincing his aloofness was, he stomped a foot. "I'm _not_ going back," he declared. "If she wants to throw her useless little life away for some pussy motherfucker, I don't give a shit!"

Ignoring him, Kakuzu turned and walked back the way they'd come, returning to the village.

"Don't expect me to wait around for you!" Hidan snarled after him. Huffing he got in line for the ticket booth, resolving to stick to his guns and continue on as planned.

* * *

><p>Kinshin opened her eyes. She was in a bedroom. It looked a lot like Akemi's, with knickknacks and stuffed animals decorating shelves mounted on pink and green striped walls. She could smell something cooking, and suddenly felt hungry, hungrier than she ever had in her life. Slipping out from under the fluffy comforter, she padded to the door and opened it.<p>

Outside was a hall. It was plain wood with matching wood doors, but when she stepped into the hallway, the carpet felt like dewy grass under her feet. She followed the smell down the hall, which opened up to a bright kitchen painted and tiled in yellows and whites. Three children sat around a table, and didn't seem to notice Kinshin's arrival.

The woman at the stove turned, and though surprise shone in her ultramarine eyes, she smiled and approached Kinshin, her arms wide. "When did you get home?" she asked, her voice like wind chimes. When she finally got close enough to Kinshin, she had the girl wrapped in her willowy arms. "It doesn't matter," the imagined mother whispered. "You're home now."

Kinshin had cried many times before. She had spent most of her life feeling vulnerable and weak. But as she leaned her weight against this mother figure, and the two sank to their knees, she cried like never before.

"Don't leave me again," the mother pleaded, and Kinshin's eyes snapped open.

She was no longer in the sunny kitchen holding the imaginary mother, but in Shiori's dark one, clinging to Hidan and begging him not to leave her again. In the next instant, she was watching Naoki being dragged into Tachibana's compound. And then she was on the road, running back into the village, and looking over her shoulder at Hidan and Kakuzu, as they went on their way with no regard for the fact that she had just left them.

She opened her eyes again, and was back with the make-believe mother. Kinshin wiped her eyes and pulled away from the woman. "I'm sorry," she said. "I can't stay. I have a friend to save, a village to help, and then I have to catch up to my miser and my psycho."

The mother watched Kinshin walk away from where she knelt on the ground. "I thought this is what you always wanted," she murmured.

Kinshin, upliftingly enlightened, smiled back at the woman. "So did I."

* * *

><p>When next Kinshin opened her eyes, she was lying on the ground, with the ninja who had made an attempt at her life in a shattered-boned heap somewhere off to her left. Above her, all she could see was a red cloud on black backdrop.<p>

Kakuzu killed another of Tachibana's hired ninjas easily, noted with some annoyance that they must have been chuunin to be so weak. As one of the natural lulls of battle came, he took the moment to glance down at Kinshin. The girl had a gash in her side, which had soaked a long crimson stripe down her clothing and turned the dirt below her an ominous rusty-brown. She looked up at him blankly, not appearing to be in any pain.

"Get up."

She blinked and her eyes widened, as if his voice had broken her out of a spell, and she was just then back to the real world. She stumbled to her feet and stood beside him, a hand pressed against her wound. "You came for me."

Kakuzu knocked one of the guards back, breaking several of the man's bones, if not killing him. "Cover yourself. I'll handle the ninja," he growled.

"Okay," Kinshin nodded. Kakuzu leapt up to meet one of the shinobi head on, and Kinshin ran through one of the guards. With Kakuzu there, the fight was far more balanced, and the rest of the guards were finished off or retreated quickly.

When the battle had finished, Kinshin looked around. At some point, Naoki's rescue team had come to help, and of their original ten, only five remained, Kinshin included. Kakuzu came to stand behind Kinshin as the team reunited.

"Where is Naoki-kun?" Kinshin asked Hirosuke, who sported a black eye and a split lip, but all-in-all looked to be in pretty good shape.

"He went on ahead to take care of Tachibana. Said it was his job to do alone and sent us here to help you guys." Hirosuke answered.

Kasumi rolled Yamada's body onto its back and checked for a pulse, shaking her head sadly when she found none. The still-living of the twins wiped blood from his brother's face and also rejoined the group, while the messenger-boy favored his right arm, which looked to be broken, and holding back tears.

"What do we do now?" Kinshin asked, looking everyone in their forlorn faces.

Kasumi, now in charge by default with Naoki gone and Yamada dead, looked to the overcast sky. "We wait."

* * *

><p>Naoki emerged from Tachibana's chamber a short time later, bloody and weary. Regardless, he called an assembly of the village and explained what had happened, and how he owed a great debt to those who had come to his rescue and especially to those who had died. And then cleanup started.<p>

"Sorry I can't stay and help," Kinshin apologized to Naoki at the edge of the village, where she had Kakuzu were about to get on their way.

Naoki took her hand in his and grinned at her. "You've already done enough, Kinshin-chama," he said. "But I feel it is my duty to my village to ask you to stay with me."

Kinshin shook her head sadly, glancing in Kakuzu's direction. "I can't. I have something that's too important to let go of."

Naoki followed her eyes and chuckled. "You have an odd relationship with them."

"I know. But it feels right." Before she really knew what was happening, Naoki had leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. She blushed as he pulled back and his eyes fluttered open.

"You'll always have a place here," he told her, letting go of her hands.

"Thank you," she said. Noticing that Kakuzu was leaving without her, she ran to catch up with him, calling back, "Goodbye, Naoki-kun!"

Naoki waved until Kinshin and her criminal were dots going around the bend. He shook his head with an exasperated sigh, "That girl…"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And here's Chapter Ten, a.k.a. Chapter Nine: Part II.**

**Vocabulary-  
>-dono: (-tono) It's like saying "lord" but it doesn't mean nobility. Dono is more respectful than sama.<br>Naginata: A spear-like weapon.**

**Song is Beautiful Disaster by Jon McLaughlin  
><strong>


	12. Hate Me

**Chapter Eleven**_  
>"Hate me today<br>Hate me tomorrow  
>Hate me for all the things I didn't do for you.<br>Hate me in ways  
>Yeah ways hard to swallow<br>Hate me so you can finally see what's good for you."_

The ferry rocked soothingly on the dark water, which reflected the dusty sunset that peeked through the heavy clouds. Kinshin leaned on the rail and sighed contently. Less than an hour ago, she had helped to liberate an oppressed village from a tyrannical leader, and it was slowly beginning to feel like it had all been a dream. Except for the pain in her side. She shifted, careful of the wound, which had been haphazardly wrapped before she had left the village.

Kakuzu still hadn't spoken to her since he had first arrived to help her, and his mood seemed to have soured sometime after that, but Kinshin couldn't pinpoint what might have triggered his irritation.

It was late evening by the time they finally reached the shores of Fire Country, and the forest was quiet, save for the occasional sparrow, hurrying home to his nest for the night. A nearby fisherman told them that the nearest village was two miles south, and they set off in that direction.

Kinshin hoped Hidan would be there, and would be easy to find so she'd have someone who wasn't giving her the cold shoulder to talk to. She stared at the back of Kakuzu's head, honestly perplexed by his behavior. Had he been worried she'd take Naoki up on his offer and stay in the village? That couldn't have been it, because she _hadn't_ decided to stay. Maybe he was angry that she hadn't actually thanked him for rescuing her. She could see why that would irritate him. The last time he had come back for her, she had said she hated him, and this time she had hardly acknowledged him before worry about Naoki and the others.

She swallowed and hurried to catch up with him, catching his sleeve. "Thank you for coming back," she said. "I'm sorry I didn't thank you earlier."

He only grunted and yanked his arm from her hold, going on along the path as if she didn't exist.

"What is your problem?" she shouted, losing her temper. "Why won't you talk to me? What did I _do_ that made you mad at me?"

"You should have stayed."

Her angry glare softened into a confused pout, "Why?"

He wouldn't answer, and she racked her brain for what he could be talking about.

"I didn't want to stay. I want to be with you forever, remember? You promised not to leave me again, remember?" She sniffled, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, and I'm sorry I ran away. Please don't be angry with me."

Kakuzu could have pointed out that it had been _Hidan_ who had agreed not to leave her again, but he knew it would be pointless. "He was offering you a home and a position of power and wealth."

It came as a slight inkling, a lot like when she belatedly figured out Michi's plan. It was the oddest feeling, like suddenly solving a puzzle. She wiped her eyes and stared up at him. "Were you jealous of Naoki-kun?" she asked.

He kept his eyes straight ahead and refused to answer her.

"Why would you be jealous of Naoki-kun? He's my friend." She blinked and thought back, "Was it because he was my first kiss?"

"That was not real a kiss," Kakuzu snapped.

She tilted her head innocently, "It wasn't? What _is_ a real kiss, then?" Kinshin had never realized just how fast Kakuzu was, but he demonstrated his speed for her, then, when he pushed against a tree in the blink of an eye.

Deftly, a finger hooked into his mask, and it was pulled aside, exposing his mouth. As he captured the naïve girl's lips, he could not only hear her heart speed up, but could also feel it against his chest where his body pressed against hers.

Kinshin's mind was blank. Her eyes narrowed weakly, and her knees shook. Her brain fizzled with half-formed thoughts, and eventually settled on an image of Hidan. She clenched her eyes shut as a wave of guilt washed over her, but she wasn't sure if it was guilt to Hidan because Kakuzu was kissing her and she wasn't stopping him, or guilt to Kakuzu for thinking of Hidan in that moment.

She was saved from having to think on it any more when Kakuzu jerked back as if she had burned him. He glared at her as he readjusted his mask, turning quickly and walking away from her. She couldn't move for a long moment, as she let the tree support her and felt more confused than usual. Eventually she followed him, but let him keep the few feet of distance that he had gained from his head start.

* * *

><p>Kinshin hovered near the inn's front door as Kakuzu went to get a room. They hadn't spoken about it, but she figured he planned on waiting until morning to look for Hidan. She didn't even know if they had planned to meet in this village, or if Hidan had gone elsewhere after getting off the ferry. There had been a fork in the road near the harbor, after all.<p>

She jumped when Kakuzu was in front of her, and thrusting something into her hands. He walked away as she looked down and saw that it was a room key. It had a number on it, and she followed along the corridor Kakuzu had taken ahead of her, coming around the corner just in time to see him disappearing into one of the rooms. She looked down at her key again, and realized that her room was across the hall from his.

She remembered Hidan complaining once, because the Akatsuki budget allowed for duos to each have their own room, but Kakuzu was too cheap and always got them only one. This was very out of character of him to get her a room of her own, and she couldn't help but have her feelings hurt by it. Did her really not want to be around her that much?

She tried to sleep, but ended up staring at the ceiling and going over what had happened on the way there. She liked Hidan. She hadn't meant to be obvious about it, but both Akemi and Naoki had managed to guess, so it must have been pretty noticeable. But Kakuzu wasn't so bad, either. And Kinshin could admit that her crush on Hidan had initially been completely superficial.

But Hidan had also treated her better than Kakuzu, hadn't he? He had cleaned her up when they first met. But it was Kakuzu who had told him to do it, and Kakuzu who went out and got new clothes for her. Hidan had come to save her from Okaji when she had posed as a prostitute. Then again, Kakuzu had been there, too. Kakuzu had sold her to a brothel, but Hidan had known about it and hadn't tried to stop him. However, Hidan _had_ come to get her out. So had Kakuzu, though.

Kinshin had to confess that her jealously of Michi hadn't been purely about Hidan, either. And both of them had taken Kinshin's half-dead body to Shiori, and then both of them had come back to get her afterward. They had both expressed dislike toward Naoki, also, but Kakuzu had been the only one to come back that time.

Did Kakuzu really care about her? Did _either_ of them really care? Kinshin wasn't worldly, but she knew that you didn't have to feel anything for someone to kiss them. She pulled the blanket over her head and whimpered. It was all too confusing!

* * *

><p>Morning came earlier than Kinshin felt it should have. She wasn't sure, as she squinted into the sunlight that filtered through the window, if she had slept at all the night before. Moaning, she rolled off of the futon and went into the bathroom. When she reemerged, bathed and dressed for the day, she noticed something that had been stuffed under her door.<p>

Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was a wad of money, wrapped into a note that had been written on the inn's stationary. Kinshin could only recognize her own name at the top, and Kakuzu's name at the bottom. Aside from that, the contents of the note were a mystery. She stuffed the money into her pocket and ventured out into the hall.

"Excuse me," she called to a passing maid. The woman bowed politely, and Kinshin went on, "Can you read this for me, please?"

The maid seemed a little surprised, but took the note and read it with an uneasy smile. "It says, _'Kinshin. Take this and don't bother me. If you lose it, you won't get more, so act like you've got some sense. Kakuzu.'_"

Kinshin took the note back with a sigh. "Thank you," she said to the maid and left.

* * *

><p>She decided to explore the village to pass the time after breakfast. Kakuzu hadn't left her much, but it was enough to eat for the day, provided she used it wisely. Did he really not want to be around her that badly? Kinshin was <em>really<em> missing Hidan. At least when he was angry at her, he still talked to her, even if he was a complete jerk.

She moped along some more, not paying any attention to the people around her, until someone had come up beside her. She only took note of this person because they had entered her personal space, and on top of that, began speaking to her.

"Something wrong, cutie?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"I'm fine."

He persisted, "Aw, come on. I'll bet I can make you feel better."

Kinshin stepped away from him. At what point had she become so popular with men? She was ugly, Hidan had told her so, and it's what had saved her all those years of living on the streets, defenseless. No one had bothered her back then, unless they were shop owners, afraid that she'd steal something.

"I'm fine," she said a little more harshly.

The guy wasn't getting the hint. "Let me buy you a drink, okay?"

"No!" she shouted. "Just leave me alone!"

As the man scoffed and wandered off, Kinshin looked embarrassedly around at all of the people giving her strange looks. She stared at her feet the whole way back to the hotel. When she got there, she paused at her door, glancing at the one across the hall, Kakuzu's. With a sigh, she turned fully and tapped her knuckles against the wood.

He didn't answer. He really didn't want to talk to her, she supposed, which only made her more upset.

"Kakuzu-san," she called through the door, not expecting a reply. "I know you don't want me to bother you, but I really think we should talk." When she was met by more silence, she sighed again and sank down to squat against the doorframe. "Okay, we don't have to talk. You just listen. I'm sorry for whatever I did to make you angry at me this time. I'll do better, just please don't leave me.

"If this is about what happened, it's okay. When you kissed me, I mean. It's fine. And I promise I won't tell Hidan-san about it, if you're afraid he'll tease you. I'm not mad about it. In fact, I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think I kind of… liked it, actually."

"Why are you talking to my door?" asked a gruff voice behind her.

Kinshin jumped up, flailing around until she found an interesting part of the wall to examine so she wouldn't have to look Kakuzu in the eye. "I wanted to talk to you," she muttered. "About yesterday…"

Kakuzu had heard her the first time. He'd have been surprised if the whole damn inn hadn't heard her, and he grumbled under his breath over her disregard for discretion. He really didn't want her to repeat the whole thing, because then he'd have to acknowledge what had happened and explain to the dense girl why it had been a mistake. Instead he stepped around her and unlocked his door.

"I couldn't find that idiot today," he interrupted her. It silenced her well enough, and he stepped into his room, her bewildered gaze being the last thing he saw out of the corner of his eye before swinging the door shut behind him. Or that's what he thought, until he didn't hear the resulting slam that should have been associated with the action.

Kinshin caught the door before it closed and followed him inside, gently pressing it shut with her back before swallowing and straightening her posture. She put on her most confident face, and walked toward Kakuzu, ignoring the wary way he looked at her.

"I wasn't ready last night," she whispered. "But I am now. Do it again."

Kakuzu didn't say anything. His expression didn't change. It was as if he had just shut down. Just when it seemed like he'd never respond, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her closer, leaning down to even out their height difference.

Kinshin held her breath and her eyes fluttered closed. She was ready. She didn't have to feel guilty for anything. Sure, there was a part of her that loved Hidan, but there was also a piece of her heart that belonged to Kakuzu. Subconsciously, she stretched herself taller, balancing up on her toes to meet Kakuzu in the middle.

Kakuzu paused, looking down at the girl who had lifted her face expectantly. The night before had been a mistake, he told himself. _This_ was a mistake. He pushed her back, perhaps a little more roughly than he had meant to, and moved away from her. He was unsure of whether the distance he put between them was to save her from him, or him from her. Suddenly, the view outside his window was very appealing, despite how low his opinion of it had been less than an hour before. He could still see her reflection in the glass.

She looked at him through the reflection, hurt evident in her eyes. "Why?" was all she could ask.

He knew she wouldn't understand. She never would. No matter what happened to her in life, he doubted she'd ever have her soul so stained as to understand just how dark the world really was. "You're a child," he said. It might not have been an explanation to Kinshin's ears, but it summed up every problem he had with his attraction to her.

It wasn't the moral implications or the social taboos of their age difference—he was a coldblooded killer, and all regard for morality had been discarded long ago—nor was it a fear of leading her to believe that he had anything to offer her aside from a life of unending travel and killing. No. It was her _innocence_, her wide-eyed guilelessness, that made him feel like he was staring at a blanket of freshly-fallen snow that glittered in the sunlight, and there was a small part of him that didn't want to destroy that.

"No, I'm not a child," she argued, glaring stubbornly into the reflection at him. "I _was_ back then, but I've grown. I've grown so much, you just haven't looked at me long enough to see it."

He could tell she was challenging him to turn around. To _look_ at her, and judge for himself. But he knew that letting her invade one of his senses might drive him to open his others to her. He clenched a fist, noticing for the first time how his Akatsuki ring bit into his skin when he did so, and noticing how his cloak felt heavy and burdensome. If seventy years ago, before he was a dangerous criminal, she had been a Waterfall kunoichi, or even a civilian… He shook his head. Thinking in 'ifs' would get him nowhere.

She dropped her gaze in disappointment. "I see," she said. "Okay, I understand. I'll just ask _Hidan-san_ if he's interested."

There was a part of him that realized that she had manipulated him, and wondered briefly when she had learned the art of button-pushing, but he let it go quickly as he drank her in, relishing the feel of her young, supple lips. The last woman he had been with—he couldn't remember her name—had smelled like flowers; Kinshin smelled the way soap tasted: bitter but clean. She tasted like cinnamon, probably from whatever she'd had for lunch, and her skin was chilled with the fall weather and rough from years' worth of cuts that had never healed properly and left blotchy, pale scars. He felt her heart quicken with more than just surprise, and knew she'd need to breathe soon, but was reluctant to let her go.

Kinshin panted heavily against Kakuzu's mouth when they parted just enough to allow them breathing room. She couldn't look away from his eyes. She had found them creepy when they had first met, but that might have been because he was threatening to kill her. She couldn't remember anymore, it seemed so long ago—it must have been six months or so. His stitches also begged her to touch them, and she allowed her fingers to tentatively brush over the threads, feeling their coarse texture.

She hadn't paid much attention the first time. This time, she focused on the little things: his musky scent, his hard body, his skin which emitted an odd mixture of warmth and coolness. She had wondered once if his body was really _alive_. She knew he didn't generally bleed, perplexing as that concept was, but it explained the chill that could be felt on him, because he didn't have the blood flowing just under his skin that most had. His body was held together by strings, like some kind of nightmarish doll.

A doll that had one hand sprawled over the small of her back, and the other behind her head, drawing her into another kiss. She moaned unintentionally. Kakuzu had been right, what Naoki had given her had not been a _real_ kiss. Fleetingly, she noted the way single threads slipped from his arms and reached toward her like grass to sunlight. The wiry ends tickled along her exposed skin, and over her clothing, occasionally snagging the material on their points. She felt the ties of her jacket come undone, but paid it no mind until Kakuzu's hand slid over her exposed stomach to rest on her hip.

She pulled back. When she had come to him, she had wanted to kiss again, but she hadn't considered much beyond that, and once again cursed herself for not planning ahead. Now he was touching her, and she had no idea how to feel about it. She drew her mind back and imagined what the people she respected might tell her: Hidan would call her annoying and tell her not to bother him with her little girl problems; Shiori would remind her that her views of sex were too immature to go any further; and Kakuzu, well, it was obvious how he felt about the situation.

She pressed him back, and closed her jacket as she moved to the other side of the room. "I'm sorry," Kinshin breathed, forcing herself to look him in the eye, even when every cell in her body screamed not to.

Kakuzu looked mildly irritated, but allowed her the space. It was impossible to have an awkward silence when you didn't care how the other person felt, but he supposed this was something close to one. He changed the subject, "We're going to the town west of here at sunrise. If you aren't awake in time, I'll leave you behind." There was some part of him that wanted to assure her that nothing had changed between them.

She felt oddly hurt by his tone and the fact that he wasn't acknowledging what had just happened, but she nodded to him all the same and excused herself from the room. The hallway outside his door was empty, even though it was only midevening. Kinshin sighed shakily and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly very tired, and shuffled across to her room, where she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep within minutes.

* * *

><p>Hidan was nowhere to be found at the neighboring village, and it became increasingly clear, as they questioned the shopkeepers and waitresses of the village, that Hidan had gone ahead without them. This was troubling to Kinshin, because it meant she'd have to spend another day with Kakuzu, who was acting normally, more or less, but it still disconcerted her.<p>

It wasn't completely clear where Hidan had gone, but they were pointed southward by the terrified interrogatees, so that was the direction the two chose to begin their search. They trekked along the road for several miles, for once stopping for breaks before Kinshin even had to ask for them, until the sun set and Kakuzu announced that they would rest for the night. Twilight filtered in through the trees, and the two travelers used the fading light to hunt down firewood and set up a makeshift camp.

Kinshin curled up next to the fire to ward off the cold, watching the flames devour the twigs she had collected only a few hours before. That morning, those twigs—assuming they had been aware of anything—hadn't known they would burn that night. It was a silly little thought, but it demonstrated something to her, even if she couldn't quite put her finger on what that something was. Whatever it was, it made her feel small, and inconsequential.

"Don't stare so closely at the fire, you'll burn yourself," Kakuzu warned her gruffly.

She glanced across the clearing at him, catching his gaze and holding it. That was the first thing he had said all day that felt like he was speaking _to_ her, rather than _at_ her. On top of that, it almost sounded concerned. She shifted her hips until she had slid herself back a few inches from the blaze, still not breaking eye contact.

"I wish you could help me understand you," she said to him.

Kakuzu found an interesting tree to scrutinize. "There's nothing to understand," he insisted.

"I just don't know what I'm feeling anymore."

"That halfwit, Hidan," Kakuzu muttered. "He's the one you want. What happened was a mistake."

"You keep saying that," she crouched and crawled closer to him, ignoring the rocks that dug into her knees. "Why don't you say what you're really thinking?" Kinshin was right at his side, peering intently at the side of his covered face.

Kakuzu tensed until his muscled ached. The fire was doing a poor job holding his attention with the girl so close to him, and he eventually lost the fight to keep his eyes off of her. "What I'm really thinking?" he mused coldly, watching her pale throat move as she swallowed nervously. He reached up and removed his mask, and then his hood, carelessly letting them fall to the side. He moved agilely, pushing her onto the ground and kneeling over her, the only sound being the light swish that his cloak made as it joined the pile with his hood.

"What I'm thinking," he rumbled almost too quietly for her to hear over her own heartbeat, "Is how I want to claim you."

Her eyes widened and her fingers twitched. She couldn't decide what to do or say, even as his rough stitching slid along her jaw, and his mouth was at her ear.

"Stop me now, or lose your chance," he said, his lips brushing her earlobe. He paused and waited for an answer, and when none came, he took the lobe into his mouth, earning a gasp from the girl.

Kinshin's eyelids slid closed as Kakuzu moved to let his lips draw patterns over her neck, and she felt a magnificent warmth spread through her body. She clamped her legs together in an attempt to satisfy the nagging feeling that formed between them. It didn't help much, and every part of her body screamed to be touched.

Propping himself up on one elbow so as not to crush the fragile female below him, Kakuzu explored her bony body through her abrasive clothing with one hand, but quickly grew tired of it and fumbled for the ties that kept her jacket closed. He ran his hand gently over the bandage that covered her wound from Tachibana's guard, then allowed a finger to slide along the scar that Michi had given her. He would never admit it—not even to himself—but it bothered him to see her scars, if only because it reminded him that she was constantly in danger while she was with him, and he was not capable of protecting her at all times.

The trail of that long scar took him from her belly, between her modest breasts and up to her collarbone, where he then fitted his palm over one of the small mounds and tested its weight. Kinshin reached up and pulled him closer, embracing him tenderly as his head rested against her shoulder and his fingers studied her exposed chest. She sighed happily at the sensations.

The rest of their garments were removed soon after, and they were left with only the fire and one another to keep themselves warm.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I am so sorry this chapter took so long. It just refused to be written, and I'm not completely happy with the outcome. It was _so_ angsty!**

**Hidan returns next chapter, so that should lighten things up, at least a little. But we're nearing the end of the story, and it's not secret how Hidan and Kakuzu's arc ends.**

**Song is Hate Me by Blue October.  
><strong>


	13. Nobody's Home

**Chapter Twelve  
><strong>_"What's wrong, what's wrong now?  
>Too many, too many problems.<br>Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs.  
>She wants to go home, but nobody's home.<br>It's where she lies, broken inside.  
>With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes.<br>Broken inside."_

It was overcast when Kinshin awoke, and the only way she could tell it was morning was by the chirping of the birds. Once again, she was wrapped in an Akatsuki cloak, and enjoyed the satiny lining. The smell was different this time, though, as one would expect. Hidan's cloak, though steeped in the scent of blood, had a sweet after smell. It was no surprise that Hidan's smelled like Hidan, and Kakuzu's smelled like Kakuzu.

While on the subject of Kakuzu, she sat up and looked around the campsite, finding him nearby. She was relieved to find him, and wasn't sure why the thought of him not being there had made her almost panic. She sat up, pulling the cloak more tightly around her—more to ward of the chill than out of modesty—and stared at his back. The masks there had made her curious the night before, but it hadn't seemed like a good time to ask.

"Get dressed," he said, still facing away from her.

She nodded, even though he wasn't looking at her, and stood, dressing quickly and handing his cloak to him. A quick check of the campsite to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything, and they were on the road again, headed for the next village.

"Those things on your back," Kinshin asked once they left the woods and were on the trail again, "What are they?"

"Masks. They hold the hearts of my victims."

"Oh," she mumbled, still not understanding but not supposing she really wanted to know. By noon, it had begun to drizzle, and early evening saw a downpour, but they still hadn't found Hidan. It was only dumb luck that got them a clue as to where he could be.

As the rain finally slowed, Kakuzu pulled out his map and Kinshin wrung the water from her clothes and hair. As she surveyed the forest around her in boredom, she first noticed an odd, flat stone on the side of the path, with a familiar symbol engraved into its surface. She paused to look at it, and noticed a second one not far off.

Sensing the girl's stop behind him, Kakuzu halted and turned to her, "What is it?"

She looked closer and saw a third stone, and then a forth, and then a fifth. She tilted her head as she realized that they made a path through the woods, and when Kakuzu came to stand behind her, she pointed the engraving out to him: an upside-down triangle inside of a circle.

"I should take you gambling," muttered Kakuzu as the two followed the trail of stones into the dark foliage.

* * *

><p>"So this is a Jashinist temple?"<p>

Hidan rolled his eyes at the girl, "It's obviously not _Buddhist_, fuckwit." As if to prove his point, an agonized scream echoed throughout the temple.

Kinshin whimpered under her breath and slunk closer to Hidan's side when one of the other Jashinists emerged into the corridor, covered in blood. He left sloppy, crimson footprints in his wake as he walked past them.

"I heard the villagers talking about a bunch of missing people in the forest, so I figured I'd come this way and check it out," Hidan told them, unaffected by the various moans that seemed to come from every dark corner of the temple. "Jashin-sama's temples are really rare. There's only three or four of them in the whole world, and this is only the second that I've found."

"So whenever you say that there's a temple nearby, you're lying?"

He nudged her, "Hey, I still have to look."

Kakuzu snorted and walked past them, exiting the temple. "We leave in fifteen minutes," he growled just before slamming the door behind him.

"He's pissier than usual," Hidan noted. "Anything happen in the last couple of days?"

Kinshin bit her lip, "No."

"You're a terrible liar, Kinshin."

* * *

><p>Kinshin flopped onto her back with a groan. Hidan was right, Kakuzu was acting "pissier" than usual. He didn't let them stop for many breaks as he led them to wherever he was taking them. Hidan didn't seemed too bothered by this, but Kinshin didn't have the stamina that her Akatsuki companions had.<p>

The grass under her back was still damp from the midafternoon rain, but she was too exhausted to care. Above her, the stars were just starting to appear in the slowly darkening sky, and to her left, Hidan and Kakuzu were arguing about who-knew-what. She closed her eyes and relaxed, just dozing off when Hidan stomped over to her.

"Get up, we're practicing kenjutsu."

Despite how tired she was, this would be her first time practicing with Hidan since before her stay with Shiori, and she was excited to show him how much she had improved on her own. She climbed to her feet and grinned at him, drawing her sword. She thought of the opening attack Naoki had used and how cool it had looked, and decided to try it for herself. Her hips twisted slightly, and she angled her sword just so for it to catch the fading light, darting up at Hidan's side with great style, like something out of a movie.

Hidan caught her wrist, easily disarming her and twisting her hand behind her back. "What was that weak shit?" he asked, his breath hitting the shell of her ear. "That's an attack that masters use to make novices feel better about how pathetic they are."

Kinshin's eyes narrowed in anger. Naoki had held back, even after she told him not to? Oh, he was going to get it the next time she saw him! The thought died quickly as Hidan's warmth began to creep through to her back. Her body trembled, and she glanced at Kakuzu, unsure of what she was looking for. Her gaze met Kakuzu's and the two stared at each other for a long moment as Hidan kept his chest against her back, and two parts of her waged war in her mind.

Eventually, she closed her eyes, breaking contact with Kakuzu, and pulled away from Hidan, who let her go the moment he felt her muscles tense. She picked up her sword and sheathed it, turning to regard Hidan's curious look. "I'm really tired," she said, then turned to Kakuzu. "You said there was a river nearby, right?"

He nodded, and she quickly set off in the direction he had early said the water was in.

"I'll be back in a little bit," she called back as she all but ran from them. Somewhere along the line, things had gotten complicated. Hidan wasn't interested in her, she knew (after all, he had been the one calling her dumb and ugly since she met him), but apparently she still liked him, and even Kakuzu couldn't change that.

She really liked Kakuzu, though, right? She wasn't just latching onto him because she couldn't have Hidan, right? No, she _must_ have cared about Kakuzu just as much, because the thought of losing _either_ of them was unbearable.

Kinshin stripped down, briefly checking the mostly-healed wound in her side, and stepped into the water. It was freezing, but she had endured worse. She sank down until her chin grazed the surface and let her mind wander back to her companions. She wished there was someone who could help her untangle her feelings, and maybe even give her the answers she needed.

* * *

><p>The trio arrived at a village the next day. Kinshin didn't recognize it at first, but as Kakuzu led them through the streets in search of an inn, the buildings looked more and more familiar. Finally, it dawned on her, and she grabbed Hidan by the sleeve. "We've been here before, haven't we?"<p>

"Yeah, this is Shinigashi." Her confused stare made him sigh, "Where the festival was."

"Oh! So this is Akemi-chan's village! Why are we here?"

Hidan pulled away from her and hurried to catch up with Kakuzu, muttering something to him when he got close enough. Kinshin lagged behind a little, perplexed by his behavior, and unsettled by the glances that the two men shot back at her. When at last it looked like they had finished their conversation, Hidan fell back to walk once more beside Kinshin.

"Let's get something to eat," he said.

"You're leaving me here?" Kinshin felt her eyes welling up with tears. "But you promised—"

"Hush," Kakuzu snapped. The other restaurant patrons were giving them strange looks. "We'll come back," he told her quietly.

Kinshin leaned forward, frowning, "Why can't I come with?"

"It's too dangerous."

"That never mattered before!" Kinshin argued.

"Well, you've also been getting your ass kicked a lot lately."

She pouted at Hidan. "I _won_ those fights," she reminded him.

"It's all the same when we've got to drag your unconscious body around to keep you from dying," Kakuzu interjected. "You won't be changing my mind."

Their food was brought to them, and they began to eat quietly. Kakuzu had made it clear that the decision was final, and Kinshin knew she wouldn't get anywhere by arguing. Instead, she picked at her rice and asked how long they'd be gone.

"Two, three weeks tops," Hidan answered. "Kakuzu has some stupid bounty, and then we'll have to seal the jinchuuriki."

"And then you'll come back for me? You promise?"

Hidan sighed in exasperation, "Yes, are you happy now?"

"Happy enough," she admitted. "Be careful, okay?"

He scoffed, sliding what was left of his rice in front of the girl as she finished her own serving. "Why be careful? I can't die."

"Don't get cocky," Kakuzu warned. He turned his gaze to Kinshin, "And you, act like you've got some sense while we're away. Don't get into trouble."

"I'll try," Kinshin giggled. He was just worried about her, so she didn't take his words too hard. They finished eating and left, getting directions for the nearest hotel from the waitress on their way out. The woman directed them to a fairly nice place—not too fancy, but not as scary as some of the places they had stayed. The rooms were a decent size, and they all opened out into a large courtyard, where several narrow walkways meandered through colorful flowers and over small koi ponds.

As evening came, Kakuzu sat and went over budgets and bounties and whatever else his many papers had to tell him, while Kinshin watched butterflies in the garden from the French doors. Hidan prayed for a while, but eventually got bored and wandered off, offering to take Kinshin with, but the girl declined.

Once Hidan was gone, Kinshin closed the door to the courtyard and crawled up beside Kakuzu. Even when she rested her head on his shoulder, he went about his business, but she took the fact that he wasn't chastising her as a good sign. They sat like that, comfortable with the silence, until Kinshin shifted up onto her knees and stretched up his body. She pressed a kiss against his mask, roughly where his mouth was, and then stood.

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

She paused, "Out to the garden. Why? Should I stay?" There was a long moment of enigmatic staring between them. Neither knew what to say or do, which annoyed Kakuzu greatly, because it wasn't something he was used to.

In the end, Kakuzu turned back to his papers. "Go," he grunted.

Kinshin only hesitated a moment before leaving the room. She found a nice spot at the edge of one of the ponds and stared into the water. Kakuzu was as confusing as ever; she wasn't sure why she expected that to change. She wondered if they'd still be this way when he came back. If he'd go about business as if they were unwilling traveling companions like before, or if they'd continue this discreet-kiss-when-no-one-was-looking thing.

She wasn't sure how long she sat and contemplated this, but it must have been a while, because she was joined in the fading sunlight by Hidan, who sat casually beside her. He looked at the pond for a while, then tilted his head to examine her profile.

"Something is wrong with you," he noted. Kinshin opened her mouth, but he stopped her, "You don't have to tell me. Hell, I'd rather you _didn't_ waste my time with your silly little problems."

"Can you love two people the exact same amount?"

He seemed surprised by her question. "Fuck if I know," he muttered.

Kinshin watched the koi make lazy circles in the water. "You think fish get bored?"

"All I know about fish is that they taste good."

She laughed. It was a little on the forced side, but she needed something to distract her from missing Hidan and Kakuzu already. The very idea of being away from them made her chest hurt, and she wondered how she had managed to leave them so easily back when she had wanted to save Naoki.

Hidan reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small object, setting it in her hand. "I found this," was the only explanation he gave her.

It was small and rectangular, and was made of a light wood and decorated with gold-leaf in the pattern of cherry blossoms. She ran her fingers over the lacquered surface. It was the first nice thing she had ever received. "Found it where?" she asked.

"None of your business. I lifted it off a corpse for all you know." He screwed his face into a scowl, "Girls like shiny shit like this, right?"

"I guess," she mumbled. When she opened the tiny box, it plinked out a song that Kinshin hadn't heard before. She smiled at him, "Thanks."

"Now you can ask Kakuzu to buy you something pretty to put in it," he teased, eyebrows raised suggestively.

Her face flushed, and she pouted. "No way, _I'm_ not the immortal, here."

Hidan yawned. "Well, how about we go get him to order some room service, then?" he asked, standing and extending a hand to her.

With a grin, she let him pull her up. "Only if you'll shield me from his wrath."

* * *

><p>"I rented the room for two weeks. If we're not back by then, find somewhere else to stay," Kakuzu instructed as they made their way to the western edge of town. It was still early enough that the birds were just beginning to chirp as they left the inn.<p>

"Okay," Kinshin nodded.

"And don't do anything stupid," Hidan added.

She rolled her eyes, "You said that two times already."

He glared at her, "I mean it! Don't be a dumbass, because we won't be here to save you."

"I'll stay out of trouble."

"Good," Kakuzu said, stopping and pressing a wad of bills into her hand. "This is as far as you go."

"Is that all you're giving her for food, you stingy old bastard?"

"If she uses it wisely, she'll be fine."

Kinshin sighed as the two began arguing. She waved at them as cheerfully as she could until they were several yards down the road, then she frowned. Two weeks wasn't _that_ long. She'd just need to find a way to occupy her time.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry this chapter took so long. I had to rewrite parts of it, because I kept getting stuck. It was hard not writing this in a really depressing way. I had to keep reminding myself that Kinshin doesn't know what's going to happen yet, so it would be odd for her to act like she'd never see them again. This was also supposed to be a Hidan-Kinshin bonding chapter, but Hidan refused to cooperate.  
><strong>

**Song is Nobody's Home by Avril Lavigne.  
><strong>


	14. The Resolution

**Chapter Thirteen  
><strong>_"Yeah I'm alive  
>But I don't need a witness<br>To know that I've survived  
>I'm not looking for forgiveness<br>Yeah I just need light  
>I need light in the dark<br>As I search for the resolution."_

"I'm so glad you came here! It'll be great to work together," Akemi chatted, piling a uniform and apron into Kinshin's arms. "Redi-bosu really isn't _so_ bad. If Yō can handle her, I'm sure _you_ can."

Kinshin shifted the clothing in her arms to better keep hold of it. "Yō-san still works here? I haven't seen him."

"He washes dishes in the back. He's not very good with people." Akemi scraped a stray hair behind her ear and continued on, "You'll have to memorize the menu, but it's not that complicated. I'll even help you. For today, just stick with me and I'll show you the ropes."

Kinshin changed into a uniform—a simple, cream-colored yukata and tea-green _obi _with a white apron—and joined Akemi in the dining room, where customers were already coming in for breakfast. There were only two other workers in the restaurant, aside from Akemi and Yō: Mimoka, who greeted and seated customers, and Rina, the chef. Akemi told Kinshin that other waitresses came and went, but it was a demanding job that most people couldn't stick out.

At break, which came in the hour that the restaurant closed between lunch and dinner, Akemi, Kinshin and Yō ate noodles and shared a plate of dumplings, while going over the menu for Kinshin. Kinshin had always had a good memory, but after being taught by Shiori, her concentration was better, and she retained information more efficiently. It helped that Akemi had been right about how simple the menu was.

* * *

><p>"Ne, Kakuzu…"<p>

Kakuzu sighed and tried to fend off an oncoming migraine, adjusting the monk over his shoulder in an attempt to relive some of the pressure on the joint. Hidan had seemed to have something on his mind for days, and every time he had opened his mouth to bitch about something, Kakuzu had been half-expecting his dimwitted partner to voice whatever it was. Of course, Hidan still hadn't said what was bothering him (and, frankly, Kakuzu didn't really care), but something in his tone was different this time.

"Oi! Don't ignore me, asshole!"

"I'm listening."

Hidan growled a series of colorful curses under his breath before moving on. "What happened in Hot Spring Country?" he asked.

"Kinshin recounted it already."

"The fight, yeah. What happened after that?"

Kakuzu really didn't want to get into the details of what had happened after Hidan had abandoned them for those three-odd days. It wasn't any of Hidan's business, anyway. "People cried, What's-his-name proposed to Kinshin, and we left." There, thought Kakuzu, that ought to distract the nosy Jashinist.

"What? That cocksucker? Why didn't she tell me?"

"I don't think she knew it was a proposal." Kakuzu rolled his eyes. The girl really could be so thick sometimes. But he had been right, Hidan was sufficiently irritated at Naoki and probably wouldn't pry anymore.

Ahead of them, the exchange point came into view. Within the hour, the dead monk would be turned in, and Kakuzu would be thirty-million ryo richer.

* * *

><p>By the time her two weeks at the inn were up, Kakuzu and Hidan still hadn't returned. Kinshin wasn't worried. Hidan had told her they might take as long as three weeks, after all.<p>

"You can stay with us," Akemi offered, making Yō pitch a fit.

"It's too crowded with just the two of us, and you want to pack another person in there?" he yelled.

Akemi rolled her eyes and turned to Kinshin, "Ignore him. You can stay as long as you need to."

"Thanks," Kinshin grinned. "It shouldn't be very long. A few days, maybe a week at the most."

But it wasn't just a few days, and before Kinshin knew it, a week of monotonousness had passed. She was so sure that Hidan and Kakuzu would be coming back, that she hadn't paid much attention to the number of days she'd been without them.

Though it was boring, Kinshin loved working with Akemi and the others. It felt like a family: Rina, or Redi-bosu as Akemi so lovingly called her, was their grumpy matriarch; Mimoka was their chain-smoking, crude-humored aunty; Akemi was their big sister, who tried her best to keep the family together, even though no one else would help her; and Yō was everyone's little brother, who existed almost exclusively to be picked on. Kinshin wasn't sure where she fit into the equation, but everyone else seemed to feel like she was right where she belonged.

It wasn't until Yō came in one morning with some town gossip that Kinshin felt anything was amiss.

"Have you heard what they're saying?" he asked, and went on without waiting for an answer. "Word on the street is Konoha killed another two Akatsuki. Weren't yours headed toward Konoha, Kinshin-chan?"

"Yō!" Akemi hissed. She patted Kinshin's shoulder, "Don't worry about it. It might only be a rumor."

"What are the other ninja villages doing? Hibernating?" Yō muttered.

Mimoka snorted, "You don't even know what hibernating means, doofus."

"Yes, I do!"

"You guys aren't helping!" Akemi snapped.

Kinshin forced a smile, "I'm sure they're fine. But if they aren't back in a week, I'll go look for them." The decision gave her some peace of mind. They'd be back before then for sure, they had to be.

"Back to work! What am I paying you people for?" Rina commanded from the kitchen, and everyone scrambled back to their duties.

* * *

><p>"You're really doing this?"<p>

Kinshin looked over her shoulder, down that path that Hidan and Kakuzu had taken out of Shinigashi a month before. She sighed and returned her attention to Akemi, "I have to." She shifted her pack on her shoulder and grinned at the other girl, "I'd like to think they'd do the same for me."

Akemi lowered her gaze, "If they really are… Er, if things don't work out, you can always come back here. Redi-bosu says you can have your job again if you ever return."

"I know. Thanks."

The two girls hugged briefly, but Kinshin had to pull away quickly so she wouldn't lose her nerve. She wanted desperately to find the two criminals, but feared that the rumor was true and had no idea how she would cope if it was.

The next village was just like any other village, as was the one after that. It was remarkable how _the same_ every place was, especially when the names of each was unknown. But Kakuzu and Hidan left a trail everywhere they went, whether they meant to or not. Encircled upside-down triangles drawn in blood were the best clues, but villagers were also very helpful in tracking them down. They tended to leave an impression.

* * *

><p>The trail led Kinshin south-westward, to a monastery which had been attacked by two Akatsuki members more than three weeks previous, according to the monks there. Though there wasn't much evidence left of the attack, the number of casualties was proof enough for Kinshin. And if it wasn't, the surviving monks could describe Hidan and Kakuzu and their attacks flawlessly.<p>

"I suggest you give up your quest," an old monk, Bansai, said to her that evening. "These foes are powerful; they've killed many of our strongest." The temple was still a wreck, but the remaining monks had set up a small area where they ate and slept while they worked on restoring it. This multipurpose area was also where Kinshin would sleep that night, having been invited to by the hospitable monks.

"I'd like to, really, but I can't. This is important."

Bansai nodded in understanding, "Then I will not try to stop you."

A second monk, Sentoki, handed her a chipped bowl of rice, and the girl bowed her head in thanks. He then settled down beside her to eat his own meal. "Word from Konohagakure is that they also killed Sarutobi Asuma."

"That's probably where I should go, then."

Sentoki averted his eyes from her and examined his rice, "They're already dead."

Kinshin bit her lip and looked to her own rice, "I have to see for myself."

"I saw what those monsters can do," he grit his teeth and glared at the memory. "They're heartless killers, and if they really are dead, good riddance."

"Sentoki," murmured Bansai gently.

He bowed to his elder and sighed, "Forgive me."

They finished their dinner in silence, and when night fell, the three monks and Kinshin slept.

* * *

><p>The last village before <em>Konohagakure no Sato<em> was a fairly popular hangout for off-duty ninja. There were no brothels and few pubs within the ninja village, so many shinobi sought female companionship in the quaint town. The handful of bars were clean and welcoming, and it was in one of these bars that Kinshin seated herself in the corner and nursed a bottle of warm _sake_, listening in on the conversations going on around her, much like how she had gathered her information in the past. It took a little over an hour, but two Konoha shinobi had finally had enough to drink that they had grown less conscious of their surroundings.

"Oh, that Kakashi. Why not just make him the Hokage already, huh? He makes the rest of us look completely useless," slurred one ninja to his companion.

The other shook his head sadly, "What's it, now? Four Akatsuki he's killed-or at least been on the team? Know where I was while he was off making himself look even godlier? Border patrol."

The first scoffed in sympathy. "And _chuunin_ nowadays! They're making us jounin look like academy students."

"You mean Nara's boy, huh?"

"And Tsunade-sama's apprentice. And the fox-brat."

"Naruto's a genin, remember. But being trained by Jiraiya-sama puts him up there, I guess."

Kinshin stifled a yawn. She wished the conversation would go back to Akatsuki, but she didn't suppose they were drunk enough for her to suggest it to them. She perked up when the word 'immortal' hit her ears.

"So much for that," snorted the first. "If a genin and a chuunin can take them out, they must not be _that_ special."

"If _anyone_ could kill them, then they aren't immortal, by definition."

"Shut up. You're such a freaking know-it-all."

"Just saying. But I heard Kakashi finished the one off, after Naruto downed him in one move."

"Ugh! And to think I could have been there, too, if I had started my rounds an hour earlier. They fought the guys _right_ on my route. As it was, I got there in time to help haul the corpse off."

Kinshin had to squeeze her eyes shut. A corpse meant at least one was dead, and the way the two Konoha ninja were talking, both Hidan and Kakuzu had been defeated, but she was having trouble grasping the mechanics of Hidan dying. Either way, she had a lead: they had been defeated along the Konoha border. Granted, the Konoha border covered a lot of space, but it was more information than she had had that morning.

She started off for Konoha before sunrise. She didn't really have to worry about being detected; Hidan had said once that she'd never be able to mold chakra this late in her life, and as such she was no threat to any ninja worth his rank, and she'd be regarded as a civilian and left alone by any said ninja.

The terrain became less green as she went, and eventually all plant-life had been reduced to twiggy, dry shrubs that were few and far between. The dry earth cracked beneath her feet as she meandered through rock formations until, at last, she came to a place where scorch marks and gashes in the ground all centered around a large crater. It wasn't clear what had caused it, but there had definitely been a fight in the area. There were several sets of footprints all around the area, but only one direction had four going out and only three coming back.

She wasn't sure why, but she had a feeling that she should follow them. With no better ideas, she decided to give into her hunch and track the prints into the woods.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Vocabulary-  
>Obi: The wide belt that goes around a kimono.<br>Konohagakure no Sato: "The Village Hidden in the Leaves."**

**This seriously took more than two weeks to write? Pheh. It's not even that good. I kept having this problem where it was too short, so I had to keep adding in pointless scenes. You can tell on some of them. See, I can do filler, too.**

**One more chapter and an epilogue to go! Unless it's too long, and then chapter fourteen will be split into two chapters. We'll see.**

**The lyrics are from The Resolution by Jack's Mannequin.  
><strong>


	15. Walk You Home

**Chapter Fourteen**_  
>"Even the brave may depend on someone<br>The moon only shines with the help of the sun  
>It's not as safe when you're walking alone<br>I'll walk you home."_

"And that's how I got here," Kinshin muttered. The deer still hadn't wandered off, even though her story had probably taken an hour or two to tell. She sighed miserably and buried her face in her hands, "All alone."

The herd stared curiously at the crying girl. Then, slowly, began to move from the area in an organized group. Kinshin saw this, and once again felt the oddest need to follow them, collecting her things and hurrying after them. The deer led her through the woods for a long while, until finally, just when Kinshin was getting ready to give up, they stopped.

The girl looked around. It was a clearing, but it didn't seem any different than any other part of the forest. But why would the deer have gone there if there wasn't a reason? This made her look more closely, and she noticed that the dirt had been moved recently. Something had been buried recently, and judging by the size of the hole, it was big. Tentatively, she began digging.

* * *

><p>Her hands were bloody and bruised, and dirt had collected under her fingernails. She didn't know why she couldn't bring herself to quit. What could possibly be at the bottom of the hole? Nothing good, probably, but she kept shoving rocks and dirt out of her way regardless.<p>

The deer came and went, sometimes seeming intrigued by her quest, other times, annoyed. Or maybe it was just her imagination. Regardless, she dug on, fueled by desperation and the terror of lonliness that she refused to return to. She knew she had Akemi, and farther north, Naoki, but there was something inside of her that even they couldn't soothe.

The sun had already set when she finally found something. It was a piece of black and red cloth, roughly five feet below the ground. When Kinshin stood in the hole she had dug, she couldn't even see over the rim. She clutched the dirty piece of fabric in her filthy hand as she dug even deeper, finding more bits of what she assumed was Akatsuki cloak.

The first body part she found was a finger. She screamed and threw the thing on first instinct before crawling out of her hole to search for it in the moonlight. The nail was painted black, and by process of elimination, Kinshin concluded that it was Hidan's finger. Hidan could survive losing a finger, though, and she dug more furiously in search of the rest of his body.

Much of was she found were burnt, mangled bits that she couldn't even identify, but she laid every piece of the maybe-ex-immortal out carefully before going on to search for the next. She had a portion of torso and a knee before she finally found a head. Hidan's silver hair was matted with blood and grime, and his eyes were clenched shut against the moonlight as he tried to adjust from the complete darkness on the world below.

"Hida… Hidan-san?" Kinshin asked, afraid to pick his head up.

He squinted at her and scowled, attempting to cough, but without lungs, it did little more than cause him to growl. The girl stared down at him, amazed. She had known he could survive things that most men couldn't, but the idea of his head still being alive, even with his body in several piles, was unbelievable.

"You're alive!" she cried, grabbing his disconnected head and squeezing it against her chest. He glared at her, but didn't seem able to speak quite yet. She set his head next to the other pieces of his body that she had dug up, and went back to searching, pausing every now and then to listen to him attempt to spit dirt from his mouth.

By sunrise she had collected every part of Hidan from within the hole and helped him rinse his mouth out, and then the two set to work putting him back together. Thanks to Kinshin's work with Shiori, she had a good understanding of anatomy, and found the task simple, if not a little tedious. Hidan's contribution to the effort was to criticize her treatment of his limbs. Once all of his parts were lined up in the correct order, Kinshin sat back on her heels and sighed.

"I'm going to need something to put you together with."

Hidan frowned, "So they really did get Kakuzu."

She lowered her eyes, "I think so."

"Whatever. Like I really care."

"Don't you dare say that! Kakuzu-san was my… He was our friend."

Hidan looked away, scoffing. "You're just upset because you were fucking him."

"How long…"

"Have I known? Please! You're the most transparent person alive, and don't think I didn't notice a sudden change in how Kakuzu acted around you." Hidan glared at her, "I'm not stupid."

"I'm sorry. Things just… happened." The girl bit her lip, "I didn't mean to betray you."

"Betray me? Why the fuck do you think I care?"

She shrugged, "I guess you just seem really upset."

"Well, I'm not!" Hidan's decapitated head shouted, the force joggling him from where he was propped against a rock and causing his head to roll away. Kinshin hurried after the runaway cranium, cradling it in her arms as soon as she caught up.

"You probably wish it was me," Hidan muttered, his face resting against her breast.

"What?"

"Admit it. You'd trade me in if it meant having Kakuzu back."

She held him at arm's length, staring meaningfully into his eyes, even as he tried to avoid her gaze. "Isn't it possible to love two people the same amount?" she asked him again.

The last time she had asked him that, his answer had been typical of his character. This time, he stared at her with a faraway look, filled with an emotion that she couldn't place. With what would have been a sigh, had he the lungpower to sigh, he performed an awkward wobble that Kinshin took as a nod.

"I guess you can. Especially _you_ can."

Kinshin wasn't sure what he meant, but she smiled anyway. She propped him back up against his rock and went to collect her sword and pack, putting them both over her shoulder. She glanced back at Hidan, "Konoha isn't far from here. I'll go buy some medical supplies so I can finish putting you back together."

"You're just going to leave me here?"

"Well, I can't haul a talking head around with me. Plus, someone has to keep an eye on your body to make sure no animals run off with any of it." Hearing no argument from Hidan, Kinshin waved goodbye and set off for the village. It took her a while to get there, but once she arrived, she found the busy shopping district quickly.

She started by purchasing food and water, as she hadn't had any in almost a day, and she was sure Hidan would want some once he was reassembled. Next she bought some clothes for Hidan, since his had been blown to bits along with his body, but his shoes were still intact, so she happily skipped those, thankful because she had no idea what size he wore.

Kinshin hummed to herself as she walked the main road, weaving between other shoppers easily. She didn't suppose some of the things she would need to stitch Hidan up could be purchased at just any store. Even a drugstore probably wouldn't carry suture thread. She'd have to smuggle some from the hospital if they wouldn't sell it to her, she supposed.

The hospital was easy to find, and the supply closet was only minimally more difficult to locate. The hard part was picking a lock in a building full of ninja, any one of which could walk by at any moment. Luckily, most of the hospital staff were on their lunch break, and she hurried out of the closet, suture in hand, locking the door behind her. She walked briskly through the corridor, down the stairs, and into the lobby, making a beeline for the door. So focused on making her escape, she didn't notice the dark-haired woman until she ran into her.

"Oh, excuse me," said the woman graciously.

Kinshin shook her head, "No, it's my fault. Sorry."

"Be a little more careful, okay?" put in a ponytailed younger man, who then walked away with the lovely woman. He briefly noted Kinshin's dirty, chipped fingernails, but didn't bother to linger on how they had gotten that way.

"Okay. Sorry," murmured Kinshin, ducking her head and continuing on to the exit. Once outside, she gathered up her things from behind the potted plant where she had hidden them, and left the village.

* * *

><p>"Come on, Kinshin-chan," whined Hidan.<p>

She grinned over her shoulder at him, before turning back to where she cooked their breakfast over the fire. "I said 'maybe', Hidan." In had been two weeks since Kinshin had dug him out of that hole and put him back together, and he wanted the splints removed.

"I can't wait anymore. I can at least walk well enough for us to get out of this forest," he argued.

"I've been thinking about that. Where should we go?"

"Preferably out of Fire Country altogether; somewhere to lay low."

Kinshin nodded to herself. "Okay, you can walk today. But only until we cross the border, then you have to stay still and heal."

"Which border?"

"The closest is River Country."

Hidan let out a breath, "As long as it isn't near Hot Spring Country or the Akatsuki base."

"Aren't you still one of them?"

"They obviously think I'm dead, and so does Konoha. It might be best just to stay dead."

Kinshin spooned miso soup into two cracked bowls and joined him on the grass. "You're giving up being a ninja?"

"I'm giving up killing." Kinshin opened her mouth, but Hidan stopped her. "It wasn't Akatsuki that got me out of that hole, and it wasn't Jashin who sewed me back together. You may be silly and childish, but in the end, you were the one who came through for me."

She scrutinized her soup as he spoke. She had always thought she'd be happy to hear Hidan talk about his feelings, but the moment just felt heavy and made her miss what they had before. That included the other third of their trio. She set her bowl down and scrubbed at her teary eyes with her wrist.

Hidan watched the girl cry in silence. He finished his soup as Kinshin's sobs slowly turned into hiccups, and she dried her eyes.

"Well," he said, trying to hoist himself up, "Let's get going. I'm looking forward to sleeping in a _real_ fucking bed."

Kinshin chuckled and rushed to Hidan's side, helping him stand. "Whatever you say," she said. "Wait a second, I have to pack up."

Hidan leaned against a tree and watched her move around the campsite. "So, River Country, huh?"

"For now. We can choose somewhere else once you're better." She slung her things over her shoulder and grinned at him. "Somewhere we can be happy."

He smiled to himself as he let her support his weight and the two set off south-westward. "That sounds good."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** (NOTE THAT IF YOU ARE NOT CURRENT WITH THE MANGA, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD)  
>I had a lot of trouble deciding what I was going to do with the ending here. I know it is terribly overdone for a Mary Sue-ish OC to dig Hidan out and live happily ever after with him, and I contemplated making it a sad ending, and having her be too late to save Hidan. What changed my mind was the fact that he wasn't brought back with the rest of Akatsuki, meaning he <em>might<em> still be alive. So in my little fanfic world, he is.

What follows this chapter is the epilogue. Almost done!

The song in this chapter is Walk You Home by Karmina.


	16. Epilogue

**Epilogue  
><strong>_"Take me, this is all that I've got  
>This is all that I'm not, all that I'll ever be<br>I've got flaws, I've got faults  
>Keep searching for your perfect heart<br>It doesn't matter who you are  
>We all have our scars, we all have our scars."<em>

As the Fourth Shinobi War raged, pitting what was left of Akatsuki (and all of the deceased that they had summoned) against the Shinobi Alliance, Hidan crouched below a tree, observing the battle before him. It was impossible to make out who was fighting who from such a distance, but even with the nondescript blobs that might have been ninja fighting, he could tell it was getting bloody.

His companion squinted out over the horizon, her vision not as good as his. "You're sure he's there?" she asked.

Hidan stood, "No, but the rumors must be coming from somewhere. If people are saying that the old Akatsuki has been revived, we should at least make sure."

Kinshin looked at her feet. She didn't think she was ready to see him again. She didn't think she'd _ever_ be ready, but she had just gotten over his death for the most part, and it seemed cruel that fate would bring him back to her at such a bad time.

"Ready?"

She took a deep breath and silently took Hidan's offered hand, allowing him to heft her onto his back to get them to the battlefield quickly. "I don't think we can beat him," she confided into his ear as he ran.

"Only one way to find out," Hidan answered with a grin, and upped his pace. They got to their destination fairly quickly, avoiding attacks from both sides with little trouble, since their non-hostile presences drew little attention. The only people who did notice them were those who recognized Hidan.

The raven-haired shadow-user was the first to spot Hidan, and he was quick to point him out to his teammates who fought alongside him.

"You should be at the bottom of that hole!" Ino shouted, her posture rigid with rage (as she would never admit it was fear).

Hidan allowed Kinshin to slide off his back and raised a sardonic eyebrow at the blonde. "Yeah, remind me to thank _him_"—a thumb jabbed in Shikamaru's direction—"for that."

"You won't have the time to," snarled Shikamaru, as long, prehensile shadows appeared from his own, shooting pointed tips in Hidan's direction. Hidan made no move to avoid them as they shot toward him with wrath-fueled speed, only stopping short when Kinshin put herself between him and the shadow sewing.

"Please, we're not here to fight you," she said, ignoring the shadows that were mere inches from piercing her.

Shikamaru remained skeptical, but retracted his shadows regardless. "Are we supposed to believe you're here to help?" he asked.

Hidan turned away from the shadow wielder, scanning over the battlefield until his violet eyes landed on the person he was looking for. "Believe whatever you want, Cock-jockey. For us, this is personal." With that, he grabbed Kinshin and the two hurried on.

* * *

><p>Kakuzu thrust a fist at an attacking ninja, sending the chuunin back and no doubt breaking his ribs. He watched his actions, unable to control them, as he incapacitated enemy after enemy. Not that he was really <em>trying<em> to stop; his biggest problem with being manipulated by Kabuto's jutsu was the fact that it hurt his pride a little. He couldn't care less about the shinobi he was slaughtering.

Hidan landed deftly in a crouch a short distance from his old partner. Loosening his hold on Kinshin, he commanded that she stay where she was, and ran toward Kakuzu, _bardiche_ at the ready. In a great leap, he swung the polearm, using his own momentum to put extra force behind the attack.

Kakuzu turned and put his arm up to block, the appendage exploding into a swirl of what looked like charred paper, before reforming just as it had been moments before. "I see you're still alive," Kakuzu said casually, as his body moved to fight Hidan. Not that he really minded.

Hidan held his weapon up, blocking Kakuzu's fist with the handle just as he had back when they were partners. "You know me," grunted Hidan, forcing Kakuzu's blow to the side and spinning his blade toward Kakuzu's neck. "I'm not easy to kill."

Kakuzu smirked, ducking down and kicking Hidan in the stomach. The white-haired man cartwheeled back, landing sprawled out on the rocky ground. Within seconds, Kinshin was at his side, helping him to sit up, and another few seconds later, they were joined by Ino-Shika-Chou.

"Why don't you just curse him?" Ino suggested, absently throwing a kunai at an approaching Zetsu clone.

Hidan coughed, glaring at Kakuzu, as the zombie stalked toward them. "I can't," he muttered, climbing to his feet.

"What?"

"I can't do that anymore," Hidan shot a sidelong glance at the blonde, irritated.

Shikamaru sighed, "It would take more than that, anyway. His spirit has to overpower Edo Tensei for him to die."

"Let me try," Kinshin requested.

"Don't be stupid. You're no match for him," Hidan protested. "If you don't care about yourself, think of Kazue."

"I am. Kazue might be what he needs," argued Kinshin, her eyes fixed on their undead third. "Just give me five minutes to talk to him."

Shikamaru nodded, "Five minutes. And then Izumo and Kotetsu get their shot." The girl grinned and thanked him, drawing her sword and moving toward Kakuzu, meeting him halfway.

"You've grown up," Kakuzu murmured, even as his threads moved wildly in an attempt to kill her.

She grunted, dodging the inky strands, "I'm glad you—_ngh!_—noticed." She gasped as he caught her sword and ripped it from her grip.

"You're still using this thing?" His eyes seemed curious, even as his movements remained violent.

She chuckled, despite his left hand—the one not holding her sword—gripping her throat. "Naoki-kun gave me a new one a few months ago, but I couldn't bring myself to put this one away," she confessed. She sputtered when his hand tightened, nearly cutting her air supply off completely. "You gave me that one," she wheezed. "Fighting with it makes me feel close to you."

Kakuzu furrowed his brow. It was at this point that he truly began to resent Kabuto's control over his body. While innocence and guilt didn't matter at all to Kakuzu, he couldn't help but think that the girl—no, woman that he was slowly suffocating _did not_ deserve to die there. Furthermore, despite how grating she could be, he had never killed her while he was alive, and he would be damned if he killed her now that he was dead.

"Kinshin," he called to her. He could see that she was close to blacking out, but his voice seemed to pull her away from it, if only a little. "If there's one thing I _know_ you can do, it's survive. Now, fight for that survival."

The girl struggled to breathe, but still pulled an arm up and reached behind her head, grabbing one of the disguised senbon that protruded from her short ponytail. She held it steady between her fingers and thrust in down into his arm. Because of his unique body structure, he didn't have the nerve there that most men had, the nerve that would have rendered his wrist and hand paralyzed, but his grip _did_ loosen minutely, and she used this to grab onto his forearm and somersault herself over his head, landing gracelessly behind him. She scuttled off to put some distance between them, before taking a moment to catch her breath and assess the situation.

She was sitting on the ground, not far from the possessed corpse of one of the first people she had ever cared about, unarmed aside from a single senbon. Probably not the best set up for her. Still, she wasn't about to give up on Kakuzu, because he had never given up on her. She was going to help him, if for no other reason than the fact that she owed it to him.

"You're going to need to do better than that," Kakuzu said. His body marched toward her against his will, and no matter what he did, he couldn't make himself stop. "Hasn't that idiot taught you anything?"

"Not really," she confessed, dodging as he tried to impale her on her own sword. "We traveled after you died. We visited Naoki-kun, and Hidan actually got along with him this time. And then I went back to see Shiori-baachan." She twisted nimbly to avoid the next slice aimed for her chest, and continued, "We stayed with Akemi and Yō for a while, too. They're married now."

He continued coming at her, but she knew he was capable of being much more efficient when it came to killing. The fact that she wasn't dead yet said nothing for her own skill; rather, it hinted at one of two things. Either the man manipulating Kakuzu's body was toying with her, so certain that she didn't stand a chance, or Kakuzu had at least a little bit of control over himself.

And then she saw it: an opening in his stance that would be perfect for an experienced swordsman to take advantage of, providing he was fast enough. Kinshin knew she was fast enough, but had no proper weapon with which to counterattack, and knew that even if she did, no ordinary weapon could kill this reanimated thing that looked like her Kakuzu. She instead did the first thing she thought of, putting her faith in her intuition as she usually did when she was at a loss.

A quick jab to his right wrist had the sword out of his hand, the blade burying itself into the dirt several steps away, and an odd shimmy had her pressed up against him, arms wrapped around his waist and forehead pressed against his chest. He felt the same as the last time she had held him, but he did not smell like him. Kakuzu's hands found her back, his fingers clinging roughly to the material of her collar, but so far, she remained unharmed.

"I'm married now, too," she divulged. "To Hidan, but I'm sure you could guess that. And we—you and I, I mean—_we_ have a son," she wasn't sure when she had begun crying, and slowly found herself wondering if perhaps she had been since before the fight had even started. "I named him Kazue, and he's beautiful. Hidan says he looks like me, but I think he looks like you.

"I miss you so much, Kakuzu-san," she told him, her voice muffled against his muscular torso. She could feel those muscles become tight, and his hands began to tremble on her collar as he struggled against what his body was being told to do.

"That idiot makes you happy?" he asked, and something in his voice made it clear that the conclusion of this fight rested on her answer.

She looked up at his face, into his eyes, black with the power of the forbidden jutsu that had brought him back. "Yes," she said honestly.

"And he takes care of you and the boy?"

"Yes," she answered again, smiling.

All at once, as if something had snapped, his grip went slack. Dark, spider web-like cracks slowly crept up his arms and legs, as pieces of his body chipped away like old plaster. For a brief moment, sewn corners rose slightly and, for the first time in many, many years, he smiled. The expression was gone as quickly as it came, but had been there nonetheless.

"Good," his voice rumbled as the last of his body vanished from her hold, drifting away on the wind.

* * *

><p>Kazue hiccupped gently as he slept in Hidan's arms, the man having finally calmed the child. Hidan hissed at Kinshin to slow down, afraid that walking too fast would wake Kazue.<p>

She held back a giggle as she watched them. On paper, Hidan would be a terrible father, but he made up for his imperfections in sheer effort. Sure, he cursed near-constantly, was quick to frustration and anger, and his automatic response to things that irritated him was to break them, but he _tried_, and he seemed to genuinely love Kazue as his own son, and that was all Kinshin could ask for.

"So where are we going now?" Hidan asked after several minutes of silence.

Kinshin shrugged, "I don't know."

"I'm surprised you didn't want to stay in Shinigashi."

"They don't need us there."

"Well, we're not having a repeat of the Tachibana cockup, so get that shit out of your head right now," Hidan muttered.

She laughed, "What, you don't want to go from village to village, encouraging revolts?"

"No."

"Okay, then let's live in a harbor town and protect the people from pirates!"

Hidan sighed, "Why do you insist on drawing attention to yourself? I'm supposed to be dead, remember?"

Kinshin looked to the blue sky with a smile. "Let's just see where the road takes us," she said. "I have a feeling that we'll know where we belong when we find it."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** First off, I want to apologize for taking so long to write this. Since it was the end, I really wanted it to be good, so I put a lot of effort into it. It still didn't turn out quite the way I wanted, but there really isn't much I can do to fix it, I don't think. I was most nervous about the fact that, unlike the rest of my story, this actually replaces something that happened in the actual Naruto storyline.

A **bardiche** is a European poleaxe, and looks a little bit like a backwards scythe. I figured Hidan would be most comfortable with a polearm, but I didn't think a spear quite fit his personality, so a-hunting I went for a weapon that did.

I'm considering a sequel to this, which would follow the misadventures of Kazue and feature cameos of some of my other second generation Naruto OCs, but I'm still not sure if I'll actually write it. If I do, it will probably come after I finish a couple of other fanfictions I've got it the works, which are a KisameOC (MONSTER) story, a DeidaraOC (WAVES) story, and a SasoriOC (MARIONETTE) story. (Their titles are all in caps because they take place in the same universe as SCARS. And by that, I mean the canon universe of my mind.) I make no promises on any of these stories, though, so let me know if you're interested in them.

The song is Scars by Allison Iraheta. I might go so far as to say that this is Kinshin's theme song, so I encourage anyone who's interested to at least look up the lyrics.

And with that, this ridiculously wordy author's note comes to an end, as does SCARS. I want to thank everyone who has read, favorited, and reviewed.


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